Thirteen nozzles at three filling stations in the Bono Region have been locked by the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) for defrauding customers (under delivery).

The stations are located in Sunyani, the Bono Regional Capital, and are Frimps at Penkwase, Eusbett Goil, and Engen.

All seven of the Frimps' operating nozzles at the time of the visit were underperforming (short-changing).

Engen had four locking nozzles compared to Goil's two.

A few of the nozzles were found to be over-delivering during the exercise conducted jointly by the Bono Regional Office, Consumer Services, and Security and Intelligence department, which caught the notice of the station managers.

The crew, lead by the NPA's Eunice Budu Nyarko and Kwadwo Odarno Appiah, regional manager for Bono, also noticed that one of the nozzles had the incorrect color code—the super nozzle had a black coat rather than a red one.

The random exercise was undertaken after the team sensitized commercial drivers and traders at the Nana Bosoma market, popularly known as Wednesday Market in the Sunyani municipality.

Mr Appiah said the defaulting fuel stations were going to be sanctioned.

The authority would require a report on investigations carried out by the stations as to what caused the anomalies of the nozzles.

The NPA officials also seized two ramps and cautioned fuel stations to desist from the practice of using ramps and shaking vehicles during filling.

Mr Appiah added that the practice was unsafe and could cause unwarranted sparks and fire. “The NPA will not hesitate to lock stations caught using ramps temporarily,” he stressed.