26 November 2015, Abuja – The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has engaged the Department of State Services and the Economic and the Financial Crimes Commission to help arrest marketers hoarding and diverting petroleum products.
The engagement of the security agencies is also meant to assist the corporation in the monitoring of fuel truck-out to retail outlets nationwide.
While apologising to commuters, motorists and the general public for the noticeable hardship being faced in the process of getting petrol across the country, the NNPC, in a statement signed by its spokesperson, Mr. Ohi Alegbe, on Wednesday, gave an assurance that it was doing everything possible to normalise the fuel supply and distribution situation.
Speaking during a working visit to the NNPC depot in Suleja, Niger State, and some filling stations in Abuja and environs to evaluate the current fuel supply situation, the Group Executive Director, Commercial and Investment, Dr. Babatunde Adeniran, said any marketer found wanting in the sale of petroleum products, including the NNPC retail outlet dealers, would be sanctioned appropriately.
Adeniran noted that there would be no sacred cow as the corporation was working round the clock by supplying sufficient petroleum products to marketers to ensure that Nigerians enjoyed a yuletide season without the pain of queuing up for fuel.
“We must all make sure that petroleum products get across to Nigerians at the regulated prices, especially as the yuletide season approaches. We have enough products and we want to plead with the petroleum tanker drivers not to be involved in the diversion of petroleum products in order to avoid causing untold hardship to motorists,” he said.
On the role of the security agencies in curbing product diversion, the Managing Director, Pipelines and Products Marketing Company, Mrs. Esther Nnamdi-Ogbue, explained that the DSS and EFCC operatives had been mobilised to bring to book any marketer involved in sabotaging the efforts of the Federal Government in making petroleum products available to motorists across the country.
“We have invited the EFCC and DSS to join us in this campaign of monitoring the movement of petroleum products and they have our mandate to sanction any errant marketer. Enough is enough,” Nnamdi-Ogbue said.
She urged Nigerians to desist from panic buying of petroleum products, adding that there were sufficient quantities of the products to meet local consumption.
- Punch
