DPR Seals Al-Ihsan Oil In Lagos

DPR Seals Al-Ihsan Oil In Lagos

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on Wednesday sealed Al-Ihsan Oil and Gas Nig. Ltd. in Ajah, Lagos, over alleged illegal operations.

Mr Wole Akinyosoye, the Zonal Operations Controller, Lagos, who led the officials of DPR and Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps to the site, said the operator had licence for road haulage.

According to the Zonal Controller, the team discovered that the operator of the oil and gas site was doing an illegal business at the location.

He accused the operator of blending, transloading and storing petroleum products without a licence to do so.

Akinyosoye said an operator is supposed to fulfill certain parameters before he will be issued such licence.

"This will include safety, health and environment and other measures and we discovered that he has not fulfilled these.

"The owner of this site is operating an illegal business and we are going to seal it," he said.

Ayosoyoye said the licence obtained by the operator of the site was to obtain products from depot and deposit it at filling stations or direct third party.

He said that what he was doing at the site was to get the product from depot and bring it to his facilities, blend it and sell to the public.

"What he is doing here is transshipping, storing, blending and selling of diesel product to people.

"When one is doing this kind of business, there is latitude for adulteration, meanwhile he did not have licence for storage.

"The permit issued by DPR to him was for road haulage, petroleum products haulage and not a transshipment licence, storage or blending licence," he said.

Akinyosoye said the operator of the company would be made to face the law.

Also speaking, Mr Tajudeen Balogun, the Commandant, NSCDC, said there were rules and regulations for any business transaction anybody wanted to do.

According to the Commandant, the operator of the oil and gas site was operating beyond what he was allowed, therefore he has to face the music.

"Presently, this place is under seal and there is no way anybody can unseal it except the department.

"We are working in conjunction with the DPR to sanitise the sector," he said.

Alhaji Muhammed Al-Ihsan, the Chairman of the company, however, said he was operating a legal business as permitted by the department.

He said that he was surprised to see the officials of DPR coming to seal his office because they claimed he was engaging in illegal businesses.

Al-Ihsan said it was annoying to hear them telling him that he did not have permit to store and sell diesel to its customers.

"What we do here is to buy diesel from depot, store it in our storage facility before transloading to our peddler that distributes our product.

"We are not selling adulterated products here, if they have evidence, they should produce it," he said.

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Written by NEWSTRAWL ONLINE UPDATE

Sodiq Oyeleke is a Media, Human Resources, Project Management and Public Relations Practitioner