Tony Edike
24 January 2012, Sweetcrude, ENUGU – NO fewer than 20 marketers of petroleum products have been arrested while about 10 filing stations have been sealed by the Task Force set up by Enugu State Governor, Sullivan Chime to monitor distribution and sale of petroleum products in the state.
The governor set up the Task Force following the refusal of fuel dealers to comply with the new price regime of N97 per liter in order to alleviate the suffering of the masses.
Some of the marketers were arrested for selling petrol far above the approved N97 per litre while others were apprehended for hoarding the product which they convey to rural areas and sell at N200 and above per litre.
One of such illegal dealers was apprehended yesterday at the Conoil filling station, Akpasha Junction of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway with five drums filled with petrol.
The petrol, according to an aged man who was said to be the owner, was procured from the station above the approved pump price and was about being transported to Oduma in Aninri Local Government where he was to sell it at between N190 and N200 per litre.
Chairman of the Task Force and the State Commissioner for Inter-ministerial Matters, Barrister Chuka Utazi, who led the team that apprehended the dealer and a female supervisor from the station said all dubious fuel marketers who had refused to comply with the government’s directive on the sale of the product would be brought to book.
He confirmed the arrest of some marketers who he said had tried to sabotage the government’s efforts to make the products available to the people at the official rate but explained that many of them were released after undertaking to comply with the new price regime.
Utazi assured the people of the state that enough petroleum products were available in the state stressing that there was no need for panic buying or hoarding which could cause havoc in their residence.
