Ok. But the boss had no right to slap d person who sold d fuelled the car. . If it ws anoda country he would will be sued for millions
Tunjasko: Mrs. Bisola Ayeni, a businesswoman in her early 40s confidently left her house at Egbeda (Lagos). with an almost empty tank heading for Ikeja. The red light of the fuel indicator was blinking nonstop but Ayeni knew the quantity of fuel in her tank would take her to the next available filling station where she had hoped to fill up her tank. Indeed, as she got to the Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway, Ayeni drove into the filling station and told the attendant to fill her car with N5,000 worth of fuel while she rummaged her handbag to bring out the money as well as pick a call. That was her undoing. Ayeni would tell our correspondent that she didn’t bother to look at the pump while the sale was on because she didn’t envisage any foul act, besides she knew the level a N5,000 worth of fuel would rise to on her fuel gauge. Ayeni only managed a quick glance at the meter and when she saw that it was reading, she relaxed and enjoyed her discussion on the phone. She said, “When I finished, I looked at the pump and I saw N5,000 on the price column, I paid him and drove away. I expected the light indicating low fuel to go off and the indicator to rise, but it didn’t happen. “Even if the rise in the fuel indicator would be gradual, I expected a major shift. Lo and behold, the light never went off and the indicator never rose. “Oh my God, I was confused and very angry, so I turned back, while praying that the car wouldn’t run out of fuel. By the time I got to the petrol station, I was fuming.” Ayeni said she had almost slapped the attendant who attended to her having shouted on him when the station manager came out. “On hearing what happened, the manager gave the sales boy a resounding slap, apologised to me and ordered him to sell the fuel again, and I heard him saying the N5,000 would be deducted from his salary. We both stood by him while he sold the fuel, the gauge rose even before I left the station, which means he cheated me earlier. I still wouldn’t know how he did it,” she said. Ayeni’s experience is common among vehicle owners, who had at one time or the other thought they had bought fuel but later found out they either bought nothing or were short-changed in terms of the quantity. A cross section of vehicle owners who spoke to our correspondent alleged that they had noticed same at one time or the other but said that there was nothing they could do since they really could not establish any foul play. In case you once bought fuel from a filling station and it seemed like nothing was added to your fuel tank after you have left, or you felt what was sold to you wasn’t commensurate with what you paid for or expected, you may have been cheated under your close watch even with your eyes wide open. Saturday PUNCH had a revealing chat with fuel attendants of some popular filling stations in Lagos and they explained how they make quick but huge cash from unsuspecting customers. One of them who identified himself simply as Owolabi John, said there are many ways fuel attendants cheat customers who have come to buy fuel, which many people are not aware of. Devouring a massive plate of hot and spicy pepper soup and a bottle of chilled beer our correspondent bought for him, John readily exposed all the tricks on how they make money. By the way, John earns N10,000 as a fuel attendant. He wants to pursue a university education. There is no other help from anywhere else, as such John admitted leaving no stone unturned to take advantage of gullible customers to make some money from what he described as “the customers’ carelessness.” “Ideally, when we resume, we take the reading on the meter on the fuel dispenser, which we call the opening meter, and when we close, we take the reading, which we also call the closing meter. Then, we multiply the difference in the readings by the cost per litre, which is the amount we deliver to the manager. If there is any surplus, it belongs to the attendant, and if there is loss, the attendant will look for money to make it up. If the shortage is a lot of money, the manager may allow that the money be deducted from the person’s salary if the person is not sacked,” he explained. However, that surplus money may not have been a miracle or manna from heaven; it could simply be a product of manipulation by the attendants. According to John, there are different types of fuel dispensers, such as Marathon, Sanki, Eagle Star, etc, and each machine has its peculiar way of being adjusted. “On the keyboard of some of them, where we enter the number of litres or amount, which is either in front or on the side, there is usually a button labelled ‘Recall, TIM/CAL’ or any other label, depending on the machine. The essence of the button is to enable the attendant to see the past sales. If you want to see your last ten sales, you just press Recall, then the number you want to see etc, depending on the number you want, and it shows you the amount. Beyond seeing our past sales, we use it to make money. “If I sell N2,000 worth of fuel to a customer, and the next customer also wants to buy N2,000. If I observe that the second customer Isn’t paying attention, I will sell some quantity, maybe N1,500 and press Stop or Cancel, depending on the machine press Recall, 1, then press Ok. With that, N2,000 will appear on the screen and that is what the customer will see on the meter, believing the sale is complete. This can be done in less than one second. That is one of the ways, and at the close of business I remove mine which is the excess of the actual litre sales. “Imagine if I do that for about ten customers in a day, with varying gain from each case, which depends largely on the amount of fuel the customer is buying and how sensitive the person is. I could make up to N10, 000 in one day,” he explained. According to him, attendants could go to the extent of writing out some past sales on a paper where they can easily have a glance to know which number to recall when a customer is distracted or looks away, since many people prefer to buy based on price and not litre. “When customers come, we observe them and see if they are tired or we try to distract them, sometimes with the help of our colleagues by engaging them in a chat or doing things that could easily distract them. As soon as they look away, if the seller has made an appreciable sale, he/she would have mastered or checked his paper to see the last time he sold that particular amount, as soon as it is possible, he will press it, and press OK. Before the customer looks back, the sale will appear complete,” John explained. John’s revelation explained one of the ways Ayeni might have been cheated. Another fuel attendant, who simply identified himself as Owode Kabir, told our correspondent that the use of Recall or TIM button is the easiest way to make quick money because the customers would think the machine was fast, so they wouldn’t always suspect anything, even though some come back to complain. However, Kabir stressed that not all attendants are involved in the act, but that many of them do it as long as there is opportunity and that in some cases, they settle the station manager at the close of work if they are able to make some money, which they do everyday anyway. But ‘Recall or TIM/CAL’ button is not the only way to make money from customers, Kabir would tell our correspondent. There is yet another way! Even though many people know that when the nozzle is hanged on the pump, the readings revert to zero, he said they (fuel attendants) have also found a way to manoeuvre it to make some money. “What we do is to gently place the nozzle, such that it won’t click to rub off the old sales and revert to zero, so, we fake it, which means the dispenser is still running, so if anyone comes, we simply continue from where we stop and that is why sometimes it seems like we are rushing the customers. It is easier when the last sale is a small quantity. “Even though the use of the Recall or TIM/CAL’ button on some of these machines is the easiest method, faking the nozzle is another viable way to make money. “If the previous sale is about N200 maybe by a Keke NAPEP and Okada rider , or even commercial buses (danfo ) drivers, because they are the ones who buy fuel in bits, we will gently place the nozzle, and naturally, when you see that we remove the nozzle from the hanger, that is, from the engine, you believe that it started from zero. However, it is not always the case,” he said. Kabir was quick to add that some station managers or managements know about their tricks but that once they are caught or reported by a customer, such person could be sacked. He added that attendants usually sell in all cases but such sales might not start from zero or could be recalled to a previous sale that had the same amount, which would be an incomplete sale for the customer. “Sometimes we could gain up to N1,000 from one sale, it depends on the quantity that the consumer wants, and those that are caught are usually the greedy ones,” he noted. He added that in filling stations where their dispensers do not have Recall or TIM/CAL only the last sale could be recalled, hence, once the last sale is not the same with the current sale, faking the hanging of the nozzle might be the only way to make money through such pump. Station owners and managers also dupe customers A female attendant with a major oil marketer company in Lagos Island, Seun Jegede, told our correspondent how station managers and filling station owners also cheat their customers. She alleged that most filling stations alter their meters to under-dispense fuel at the detriment of customers, which is a known phenomenon among consumers. Even though this could be a product of greed and inadequate regulation, she said they also do that to make up for some loss they might have incurred during sales. “Based on experience, I can tell you that almost all filling stations, including the ones being run by government, adjust their meters and what they do is to settle the officials from the Department of Petroleum Resources if or when they come for inspection. “No attendant can alter the meter on his own, except the manager sanctions it because it involves the engineer changing the panel and doing some mechanical readjustment. That is why many filling stations that alter their meters have to bribe their way through because the engineers are not always there, except the manager recommends a trusted attendant to be trained so as to put the pumps back to normal if DPR comes. “The adjustment is easier with the marathon machine because it has a key in front of the meter. This allows for quick readjustment of the meter so as to scale through the due diligence check by the DPR, which could be once in six months,” Jegede explained. She added that the decision to alter the meter could either come from the owner of the station or the station manager in connivance with the engineer, adding that whoever orders the adjustment takes the money made from the unsold quantity. Station attendants also cheat their employers According to John, not only customers are open to this fraud, even the management that the attendants work for are not immune to their fraudulent acts, through what he called ‘no reading’. In this case only the price meter reads while the litre reading does not move. He said this could be a product of frequent repairs of the pump or any other mechanical fault, which could make it malfunction. “When there is ‘no reading’ on the litre menu, and the management is not aware, there is no way the management will know the actual number of litres that have been sold. “What we do in such cases is to sell on the basis of amount only and we sometimes negotiate with the customer for settlement because we can sell more to make money. I can even call someone from home to come and buy and keep for me, before the management finds out that the litre is not reading. “Even though the ‘no reading’ issue rarely happens, it becomes a free for all if it happens to the diesel or kerosene pump that usually has no attendant attached to it. With that, tracing who sells what quantity may be difficult, even though an attendant must be smart to avoid being penalised. “Another form of ‘no reading’ is when some attendants, especially those attached to diesel or kerosene that have lesser patronage compared to petrol, gently press the nozzle (just like a one- touch press) that may not read on the meter whereas some fuel will still come out. It can also happen when they finish selling and instead of hanging the nozzle, they place it inside the keg for the little quantity to drip into their kegs. It may appear little, but over a long time, the gentle one- touch press and the leftovers become a large quantity. That is why you see some attendants having kegs beside them,” John explained. The attendants further explained that they make more money when there is epileptic power supply which force people to buy fuel in kegs. “When there is no power supply and people struggle or force your nozzle in their kegs, many of them don’t care about starting from zero, which is a plus for us,” he said. They however said station attendants find it difficult to cheat if the customer comes out of the vehicle to stay with them, adding that those who sit in their vehicles can easily be distracted or shortchanged. A Director in DPR, Mr. George Osahon, had strongly advised in a television programme recently that it was better for vehicle owners to buy specific amount of fuel rather than using number of litres as a yardstick. “When you go to a modern filling station and you ask for N5,000 worth of fuel, they simply punch a pad and when it’s complete it stops by itself, and it is better to stand by the seller or keep a close watch from your car if you choose to sit in the car. “The reason the same worth of fuel would vary in quantity at different filling stations is because some under-dispense. Nobody will ever over-dispense, people will either dispense normally or under- dispense, so if you see such differential, it is very necessary for you to call the attention of the DPR to it,” he had said. Osahon had also said people should stop using statements like ‘fill-up the tank’ not minding how much fuel was inside their tank or the quantity coming into it, saying there is a lot of wastage in that, which is not necessary. However, while some filling station attendants who spoke to our correspondent denied the fraud allegations, a few others admitted that some attendants do it and that it depends on the circumstance and the type of pump, as pointed out by John. A cross section of station managers who spoke to our correspondent also dissociated their filling stations from those who cheat their customers, adding that none of their staff would survive such an attempt. Mr. Adebola Durojaiye, who is a manager of a filling station in Ikeja, said, “People say all filling stations under-dispense but that is not true. One good way to identify those who do it is that they don’t have good patronage because whether we like it or not, customers know the good and bad stations, so, the generalisation is wrong.” The Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Ejigbo Satellite, Mr. Ajayi Adebayo, said recently that any member of the association found indulging in sharp practices would have his/her office sealed off alongside other sanctions, while urging members to be transparent and objective in their business transactions. In a telephone conversation with our correspondent, the Executive Secretary, Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mr. Obafemi Olawore, said no member of the association could be involved in under-dispensing or fiddling with the pump, adding that anyone with proof of such malpractice against any MOMAN member should feel free to contact the association to complain. “I am not aware that any MOMAN member engages in under-dispensing. However, I cannot swear an oath or beat my chest and say there is no such thing by those that we contracted to run the stations, that is, the dealers. I am not saying they do it, but anyone with proof that it happens should contact us and we will take immediate action,” Olawore added. DPR Spokesperson, Ms. Dorothy Bassey, said the agency was doing its best to check the fraudulent practices by some filling stations through its random inspection, while describing the bribe allegations against DPR officials as untrue. “I am confirming to you that it is not true that officials of DPR collect bribe, what kind of money are they going to pay DPR staff? That is why we shut down stations once we have any indication that they carry out any malpractice. “It happens but not as rampant as people make it look because nobody is a fool or wants to be cheated. That is why we do a lot of public engagement for people to watch out. “We may not be 100 per cent, but certainly, we are working to ensure that everybody is happy. We have operation offices nationwide where people can go to complain,” Bassey said. Meanwhile, a report culled from dailyfinance.com says filling up the tank may be another way to lose money and fuel, because when the pump clicks off automatically, no additional fuel enters the tank. “Instead, fuel is likely being diverted through the pump’s vapour recovery system and back into the station’s tank, which means you are paying for gas that you are not getting. “More importantly, the car needs space in its tank for fuel vapours to expand. Overfilling can force gas into the car’s carbon filter, leading to poor performance, reduced mileage or costly repairs. So, the next time you want to buy fuel, don’t top off your tank, it’s good for your car and even better for your wallet,” the report said.
welcome. You could do what my cousin did. Move to a random us town. And join deir soccer team and promote yourself. You could do this as a side activity with your college
InAfconSquad: You know i was just wondering, I'm a very Good footballer, and the Academy i play for has got some Awesome ones too.. But the opportunity isnt just here in Nigeria , so i was wondering, is it possible for me to travel to Europe (UK, Germány, Spain, France) et, and join one of the league's feader team.. I don't want to go through any agent , cos most of those guys are scammers.. so please, is this possible? If it's not, how do I go about it?
. Its not worth it to go to uk or us just to pursue your soccer dreams. There are opportunities in nigeria. Just kip checking newspapers or coca cola/ Pepsi adverts. Also you can join alocal/ school club. Then you might be lucky enough to be spotted by a scout
Tomiwatosin: The days ☀̤̣̈̇f which pubic holidays are given i̶̲̥̅̊n̶̲̥̅̊ Nigeria is just too much. Before we knw it,another public holiday would show up again.
you say that like it's a bad tn.......instead of u to be rejoicing
You might not know family guy but you must know the simpsons-the oldest running cartoon of all time with the yellow family. In the season premiere of family guy. Seth macfarlane is doing an episode where the griffin's go to springfield(the real springfield in the simpsons). Its going to be an hour long.......its meant to be released on Sunday. but dstv will delay it for like two months. But you should be able to watch it online
I really love family guy and south park but south park is funny,appears to be funny and trey and parker over do the humour. Then it becomes offensive to me. And other people especially kids who r exposed to profanity. Just like the south park episode when they said jesus uses performance enhancing drugs to be crucified. And they showed God ad an ugly monster. But family guy is more interesting and watchable with kids. The humour isn't overdone and I love the way everything said becomes a flashback. Family guy dosen't insult people. And it always speaks a good story....overall I think family guy is better__. which show do you think is better. And the reason you think is better
How old are you. I'll check online for some academies for u. It all depends on your age
InAfconSquad: You know i was just wondering, I'm a very Good footballer, and the Academy i play for has got some Awesome ones too.. But the opportunity isnt just here in Nigeria , so i was wondering, is it possible for me to travel to Europe (UK, Germány, Spain, France) et, and join one of the league's feader team.. I don't want to go through any agent , cos most of those guys are scammers.. so please, is this possible? If it's not, how do I go about it?
syta: Ugochukwu ekwem is not a real man of God,he is a fake pastor who slept in a burial ground for seven days for powers,not only that he is a member of a hindi shrine were they do worship krishna,ganesha,rama, etc and their his also a full member. He is too fetish he does not have any annointing in him,the wife dumped him with a son becos of his inresponsible life style,he sleeps around with different girls in different hotel,his just after peoples money that why his using the name of God in vain,the name of his church is christ living hope intl ministry in awka.this church is built in a wrong foundation,all this story is true becos very soon I will go to his church and expose him I have everything I need to expose him.
D pastor will drink d whole bowl and wait for 3 months before I tasteit. FTC tns
CFCfan: Lesego Daniel, the controversial South African pastor who first made major news when video appeared of him asking members of his congregation to eat grass, has made news yet again as video has surfaced of him telling his members to drink unleaded fuel, which he claimed to have converted to juice.
Equating himself to biblical figures like Moses and Jesus, the pastor claimed during an August service that the converted petrol can "miraculosly" cure infertility and other afflictions. "This is prophetic," he said.
"When I command you to come you will come whether you like it or not, and you'll do as the Word says." the pastor furthered.
Those who sampled the flammable beverage passed around by the preacher ranged in reaction. Some asked for more, saying the drink was as tasty as iron brew or pineapple juice, and some said it tasted like blood. Others collapsed.
In January 2014, when Daniel asked parishioners to eat grass, many fell ill as a result.
hinohsend: Guys let's be honest are you happy GOD created you as a Nigerian?? Considering d. Fact that countries like the USA and Afganistan exist.[/color][color=#990000]
. Ur post is wrong. God dosen't create you as a nigerian. if ur nt happy being a nigerian. Apply for us or england citizenship
Can't read the whole post. But ur right from the topic nd d first few lines. Just like the three idiots movie. Mr virus-who knows d first man on the moon. Everyone knew. But he asks. Who d second man is. No1 knew
PeetaBishop: Victors may write the history, but inspiring success stories can all too often overshadow less spectacular tales of brave people who pushed society forward without honors or recognition. Even the ones who paved the way for the eventual victor.
We all know Neil Armstrong, but fewer remember the second man to set foot on the moon, Buzz Aldrin. The third moon- walker, Charles Conrad , may have known that nobody was watching, which is probably why, instead of solemn words, he let rip with a simple “Whoopee!” Norwegian Roald Amundsen also received much more credit than British Robert F. Scott after beating him to the North Pole by just a month. Scott died on his way back, which of course didn’t help, soon after realizing how close he’d come to glory. But really, in the bigger scheme of things, what’s a month? And have you ever heard the name of Bert Hinkler ? Probably not. He flew across the Atlantic second, soon after Charles Lindbergh launched headlines worldwide. Still, being first is often difficult to prove and even then, not always a guarantee of fame. Take Thorfinn Karlsefni . He was one of the Vikings who settled in Newfoundland, Canada, about 500 years before Columbus set sail for the New World. Yet the sailor from Genoa is still widely credited as being the European who discovered America.
The Wright brothers might not have been the first to fly an airplane either. Richard Pearse , a farmer from New Zealand, is said to have flown 350 yards with a plane of his own invention, nine months before the Wright brothers took off. Another contender for the title is Gustave Whitehead , a German engineer living Connecticut who claimed to have flown in 1901, two years before the Wrights did. Countless pioneers have gone unrecognized in the field of engineering, where a patent often means the difference between glory and oblivion. The microprocessor, for example, was first invented by Geoffrey Dummer, a British electronics engineer. But he abandoned the idea after his presentation of the device failed to impress the attendees of a conference in 1952. Six years later, Jack St. Claire Kilby, an American scientist, filed a patent for an almost identical device. The invention made billions for Texas Instruments. The most emblematic case of legal woes is probably that of Antonio Meucci , who invented the first phone-like device in 1854. He filed a caveat at the U.S. Patent Office, essentially putting a temporary hold on the idea before filing for a full patent. But soon he went bankrupt and could not afford the $10 fee to renew it. It expired in 1874 and, two years later, Alexander Graham Bell filed his patent. In 2002, the U.S. House of Representatives declared , “If Meucci had been able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after 1874, no patent could have been issued to Bell,” but school books still list Bell as the telephone’s inventor. Many women’s contributions have also fallen through the cracks. In 1962, James Watson and Francis Crick won the Nobel Prize for discovering the DNA’s double helix structure, an achievement that was only possible because of Rosalind Franklin, the biophysicist who took the first pictures of life’s building blocks and received no credit for the discovery.
Sometimes even those who completely fail to reach their objectives pave the road for others to succeed. It’s the case of countless 19th-century explorers who, driven by curiosity and national rivalry, joined a race to the farthest corners of the Earth. When John Hanning Speke discovered the source of the Nile in 1858 he did so, in part, based on the unsuccessful previous attempts of little-known explorers like Robert James Gordon, Henry Pike Welford and John Ledyard, all of whom lost their lives trying to solve the century’s most gripping mystery. Also forgotten have been many who helped their life partners to the finish line, like Florence Barbara von Sass, the wife of famous African adventurer Sam Baker. She accompanied him in all his expeditions. Still, history’s most neglected heroes might be the local men and women who worked tirelessly to get others into the history books and received barely a footnote in return.
It’s the case of most African porters whose role in exploring their own continent has been widely understated. Their first names — Bombay, Chuma, Susi, Uledi — are sometimes mentioned in explorers’ journals and some received honors from the Royal Geographic Society , but their exploits have gone largely unsung. Likewise, Sherpa guides risk their lives helping Westerners up the Himalayas but their names are often left out when recounting mountaineering feats. A notable exception was Nepalese Tenzing Norgay , who received wide recognition and a medal from the Queen of England for reaching the summit of Mount Everest with his friend Edmund Hillary. History’s limelight is capricious. Why should those who fall slightly short of the mark not be recognized for persistence and courage? Theodore Roosevelt put it best in a 1910 speech : “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena (…) who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”
markjane: You and your guy are happy. At least in your mind you are. You love him and you believed he loved you. The problem is that he doesn't express it verbally to you. You've told him that you're crazy about him and that you adore and need him. He, on the other hand, never expresses anything even close to that. You're wondering why he won't say "I love you" in return. Does it mean that he's not as emotionally attached to you as you are to him? Or could it possibly be a sign that he just isn't that into you at all and only views you as a casual girlfriend? Understanding why men hold back when it comes to sharing their feelings is important. Once you can recognize why your guy hasn't said the words, you can then start helping him feel more comfortable about being more expressive with his emotions.
There are several common reasons why men struggle with saying "I love you" to the woman they're involved with. The first is the most difficult to absorb. He may not be telling you he loves you in return because it's not something that he feels yet. Men and women tend to fall in love at different speeds. We often are smitten very quickly and feel our hearts opening up to the idea of love after just a few dates. Men, on the other hand, tend to take their time in trusting in love and in the woman in question. If you say it before he's ready to return the sentiment, he just won't do so. He'll instead smile or change the subject leaving you feeling rejected and embarrassed.
Another reason he may not feel comfortable sharing what he feels is he doesn't want to make himself too vulnerable. Just as it breaks our hearts when a relationship ends, the same is true for men. He may be worried that if he tells you he loves you that it will open his heart to even more pain should something go wrong between the two of you. He may want to keep his emotional power and not saying he loves you may be his way of doing so.
There is an expectation that comes when a man tells a woman that he's in love with her. If your man was to say it to you it's a strong signal that the two of you are now a couple and will only be dating exclusively. Even if he's starting to fall in love with you, he may avoid saying the words simply because he's still not ready for a serious commitment. Even if his actions suggest he only wants you, his heart may not feel that quite yet.
He dosen't love u noni
JJustkidn,guys always try to hide deir feelings to be tough or to be a man. Or maybe he is shy. Try telling him that next tym u text him nd see d result
PeetaBishop: To tell you the truth, I really don't like soccer. You won't ever find me on a soccer thread whooping for a particular team or what not. In the society today, it seems being a fan of soccer is what makes you a man but I beg to disagree. During my first year in the University, a lecturer asked all soccer fans to raise their hands up and the whole class (I mean the guys) all raised their hands except me and the lecturer asked if I didn't like the game and I just shook my head. From somewhere in the class, a guy shouted "He's gay". Although I didn't reply to him but I felt bad because I don't see any reason why hating soccer makes me less of a man. Pls tell me guys, is it wrong if one doesn't like soccer?
yes,i agree with this guy
ayukdaboss: Where were you when your mates and gender were liking soccer during their tender age? Maybe playing with dolls and cooking food with leaves and sand. Real men start liking soccer when theyre young...I've seen 3 year olds who already know that round objects are to be kicked like a ball. It's really questionable for any guy not to like soccer.
in nigeria if you dont like soccer ur a nerd. Don't u play ball on ur street. Or discuss and argue on the weekend matches every monday morning. Even during the world cup/afcon your whole family will gather nd watch nigeria play. Where were you during this tym op