By Aduragbemi Omiyale
The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has refuted claims in a viral video that it sells adulterated premium motor spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol.
A video went viral recently showing a dark liquid believed to be petrol purchased from one of the NNPC retail outlets at Keffi Flyover.
Reacting to the video, the state-owned oil company noted that the fuel was not bought from its outlet as claimed, stressing that it never imported bad petrol into the country.
“We have carried out spot checks at all our outlets and found this claim to be false. The product was not, and could not have been bought from any NNPC Retail outlet as the company does not dispense petroleum products into bottles or jerrycans as displayed in the video,” a part of the statement signed by the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of the NNPC, Mr Olufemi Soneye, on Thursday stated.
The company noted further it does not deal in adulterated products as it adheres to rigorous standards and quality control measures at every stage in its operations to ensure that only high-quality, safe, and reliable petroleum products are available at its stations nationwide.
While boasting it takes “pride in maintaining accurate pump integrity with regular inspection and calibration to ensure consistency across our stations nationwide, the NNPC appealed to members of the public to “discountenance the spurious claims made in the video and be wary of selfish and unpatriotic elements pushing such narrative as they do not mean well for the country.”
Recall that in 2022, about 100 million litres of contaminated petrol were imported into Nigeria, causing havoc to some vehicles.
NNPC, which was the sole importer of petrol at that time, had to recall the bad fuel through one of its subsidiaries, the Pipelines Product Marketing Company (PPMC), leading to the call for the resignation of the chief executive of the NNPC, Mr Mele Kyari, by a group known as the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP).