The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on Thursday commended petroleum marketers in Zamfara for complying with Federal Government’s directive on the reduction of petrol pump price to N125 per litre.

Mr Yusuf Shehu, Controller, Gusau DPR Field Office, gave the commendation while on a routine surveillance patrol in Gusau.

“We are on surveillance patrol to filling stations to ensure the level of compliance by marketers with regard to new official pump price of petrol announced by the government.

“We commend the petroleum marketers for complying with the federal directives, to reduce petrol pump price from N145 to N125.

“We observe that almost 70 per cent of filling stations visited are selling the commodity at N125, as directed by the government, while the remaining 30 per cent have exhausted their products,” he said.

According to him, the exercise will be continuous; we will continue to monitor the level of compliance across the state.

He advised members of the public not to panic because of COVID-19, saying that despite the challenges the government would make sure that the products were made available to Nigerians.

The DPR official threatened to deal with any marketer found to be violating the government’s directives, in line with the rules and regulations of the department.

Coronavirus lockdown offenders face jail term in Lagos Assembly new law

The Lagos State House of Assembly has passed into law a bill empowering security agencies to arrest people who flout directives aimed at stopping the spread of Coronavirus pandemic in the state.

Part of the bill recommended that those who flout the coronavirus lockdown directive be jailed for a month or fined N100,000, The PUNCH reports.

The Lagos lawmakers passed the bill at their sitting on Thursday.

The bill, titled ‘A Law to Combat and Stop the Spread of Corona Virus Pandemic in Lagos State and for Connected Purposes’, has 25 sections.

The bill also empowered Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to spend at least N20 billion to combat the pandemic in Lagos State.

The Speaker, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, directed the Clerk of the House, Mr. Azeez Sanni, to prioritise sending a clean copy of the passed bill to Sanwo-Olu for his assent.

It read, “The Bill empowers the Governor to incur the Kick-off expenditure sum of N20 billion to combat and stop the spread of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“The Governor in combating the Coronavirus pandemic shall declare a state of emergency in the State to protect the people of the State from the pandemic.

“The Bill calls for a Trust Fund named Coronavirus Pandemic Trust Fund with a board to manage this, but supervised by the Executive. The Trust fund shall consist of funds and material donations from individuals, private and public organizations.

“As from the commencement of this law, only essential services such as food supply, pharmacy, shops, water supply, petrol filling Stations and other relevant agencies shall be in full operations unless the Governor declares otherwise.

“All security agencies in the state including the Lagos State Neighbourhood Safety Corps Agency shall effectively ensure that policy directives of the Governor are implemented and enforced.

“Where there is a violation of a close down or stay at home order, security Agencies shall have the power to arrest without warrant and may detain any person who violates the close down or stay at home order for at least 48 hours.

“Where the arrested person is found guilty, the person is liable to a fine of N100,000.00 or one month imprisonment or three months Community service.”

Lagos, which is considered as the epicentre of coronavirus in Nigeria, has a total of 32 confirmed cases as of 05.45pm on Thursday.