The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on Wednesday appealed to the State Task Force on Petroleum against harassment, extortion and intimidation of marketers. The Operations Controller of DPR in Eket, Mr. Asuquo Antai, made the appeal in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Eket.
“It is not proper for the state task force to harass anybody that is doing oil and gas business under licence, these people were licenced under the DPR. “It is expected that the state task force operations will complement the work of DPR, not negate what we are doing. “But when the task force goes out to neither seal petrol stations nor pick locked up marketers, it becomes another issue all together,” Antai said.
He said the state government does not have powers to regulate and monitor oil and gas activities in the country. “It is the prerogative of the Federal Government to regulate and monitor oil and gas activities all over the federation. “The Federal Government in its wisdom set up the DPR laws to carry out these functions; DPR has been doing this diligently.
“It is not out of place for the state to ensure that business activities within its area of authority are done under control and in line with the rules of the land,” he said. The DPR boss decried the situation where the state task force sealed petrol stations and lock up marketers in the state. He said that when the task force observed lapses, they should report to DPR officials for necessary action.
“I can tell you that members of the task force have never been to the DPR office; I don’t know the members of the task force, I don’t know their mode of operation. “So we don’t have a working relationship, the marketers had decided to take the issue to court,” he said. Antai urged the task force to allow DPR carry out its functions and not to take laws into its hands.
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