The Federal Government has given marketers of cooking gas to clear out illegal and roadside dealers within two months or face a clampdown on activities of retail outlets in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
The ultimatum was given by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) at a forum where an agreement was reached with the Liquefied Petroleum Gas unit of the Nigerian Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas (NUPENG) on Friday.
According to the DPR’s zonal operations controller, Buba Abubakar, the union is aware of the inherent dangers of not registering and the DPR is ready to look at their grievances objectively.
He added that the retailers will not be given preference when it comes to giving suitable locations for their business around the FCT.
“We are going to give gas retailers two months to talk to their members on the dangers of not registering or just setting up their cylinders and start selling.
“They have agreed to talk to their members, they will register and we will look at it objectively because of the location; we cannot give them site suitability anywhere,” he stressed.
Meanwhile, NUPENG’s Principal Organizing Secretary, Alexander Stephen, stated that most of its members are registered with a valid identity card, but they hope to report those operating illegally to the DPR for sanctions.
“We have identity cards, we have means of identifying our members and our agreement is to report those who are not our members to DPR who will eventually get most of them off the streets.”
