" adding that the corporation would do everything to get to the root of the matter.
Consumers contacted yesterday claimed that the fuel sold to them by some outfit owned by the major oil marketers had foul odour, smoking and gaseous smell, which had a damaging effect on their carburettors.
A manager in one of the filling stations along Zik Avenue, who sought anonymity told journalists that, "our customers have been complaining of the contamination of the fuel we sold to them yesterday (Wednesday). They said the fuel contained some gases and made their carburettors to go bad and even have foul smell.
"We get our supply from the Pipeline Products and Marketing Company (PPMC) Depot at Emene and because of the complaints from our customers, we have suspended sales for today (Thursday) until we get fresh supply from the PPMC," he said.
Meanwhile, some major marketers of petroleum products have complied substantially with the directive of the government to revert to the old price. At the UNIPETROL and Conoil along Zik Avenue, the prices of petrol per litre was sold for between N44.30 and N45. But members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have remained adamant as they still sell the product at between N55 and N65 per litre.
During the regime of the late Abacha, when the country depended on imported fuel, cases of adulterated products were rampant.
Surrogates of the government were allegedly behind the ignoble trade but the trend, however, changed in 1999 when the Olusegun Obasanjo administration was inaugurated.
However, its frequent increases in the prices of fuel had pitted the citizens against it, with strikes and protests greeting such moves.
Only last week, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) declared a national strike against the government's raise of a litre of fuel to N50.
A Federal High Court through an injunction ordered a return to the N38 per litre regime. Although Labour has suspended the strike, which lasted for three days, marketers are yet to obey the court order.
The feared adulteration of the products, industry watchers said, may have been influenced by the high premiums which fuel now attracts in both the local and international oil market.
Olujinmi, at the launching of a book entitled: "Oyo State at 28", also defended the recent imposition of emergency rule on Plateau State.
The minister, who represented President Olusegun Obasanjo at the book launch, said that in so far as fuel prices continue to rise at the international market, the domestic market would respond in a similar manner.
His words: "Deregulation is the best thing to have happened to the downstream sector of the oil industry. If marketers cannot sell at profit margin, they will stop importation and scarcity will come back and we do not want to go back to that period."
He urged Nigerians to be patient with the government, declaring that the administration is not out to inflict suffering on the citizenry. "The policy of the Federal Government is to ensure that Nigerians are well catered for and not to make them poorer. President Obasanjo is committed to a better life for Nigerians," he said.
According to him, a situation where a marketer would buy fuel for N70 and the citizens would insist that it be sold for N40 is impossible. He said: "Anybody in business is there to make money. If they cannot sell at profit margin, they will stop importing and scarcity will resurface. We will continue to import fuel because the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) cannot meet the daily consumption of Nigerians.
On Plateau State, Olujinmi said that the 1999 Constitution grants the President the power to declare emergency rule on any part of the country. He also disclosed that a committee to seek Nigerians' views on the death penalty had been constituted.
