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DPR Moves to Halt
Hike in Fuel Price in Lokoja
Against the backdrop of arbitrary
price increase in petroleum products
across the country, the Department
of Petroleum Resources (DPR), has
set up surveillance teams to ensure
that the products are sold at the
official rates at all filing
stations across the country.
Mr. Gbenga Koku, Operations
Controller, Lagos Zone of DPR who
disclosed this recently in Lagos,
said that the DPR would close down
any filling station selling fuel
above the official pump price of N65
per litre.
Koku said any marketer found
hoarding petroleum products would be
made to face the wrath of the law.
He stated that products were now
available nationwide, promising that
the organization was ready to
eliminate hoarding and inflation of
product prices. He pointed out that
DPR’s major problem was from
motorists, who he said were always
willing to purchase fuel above the
official bump price.
The zonal DPR boss advised Nigerians
not to agree to be cheated by paying
more than N65 per litre for petrol.
-Tijani Yakubu, Lagos.
Constant Research,
Panacea for Economic Crises -
ASURI
With the economic meltdown across
nations and the threatening global
warming, the need for constant
research cannot be over-emphasized.
Academic Staff Union of Research
Institutes, pointed out that paying
adequate attention to research
institutions is the solution to
Nigeria economic problem.
Chairman of the union in the Federal
College of Forestry, Jos, Kingsley
Okeke-Agulu, told newsmen in Jos,
that Nigeria cannot join the league
of developed nations unless it pays
attention to its research
institutions.
Okeke-Agulu stressed that, “in the
developed world, the research sector
is the engine room of development.
Malaysia came to pick palm fruits
from Nigeria and has now developed
them because it has a viable
research sector”. He further
insisted, “Research is the panacea
to the nation’s economic ills. One
of the reasons our country has
failed to join the league of
developed nations is, because the
research sector has been neglected.
Research requires adequate funding”.
“The research sector should be the
melting-pot for university graduates
to be exposed to radicalized
theories they were taught. We have
the capacity to excel but the
wherewithal has not been given to
realize our potentials”.
The Chairman explained that, the
one-week warning strike embarked
upon by the union all over the
country was to express their
grievances over the age-long neglect
of the research institutes and
allied sectors by the Federal
Government, noting that such action
was not either in government’s or
researchers’ interest.
- Teryima Ajijah, Jos
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