Abuja — In a move aimed at curtailing the activities of black market
operators and others benefiting from people’s misery, the Commandant
General of Nigeria Security & Civil Defence Corps ( NSCDC) Alhaji
Abdullahi Gana Muhammadu has ordered a 24-hour surveillance of petrol
stations by the Officers of the corps.
Officials of the NSCDC would therefore be assigned to petrol stations
across the country in order to carry out the directive.
Gana gave this order immediately after he met with the Minister of State
for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu at NNPC towers Abuja on
Thursday, he handed down the order as the widespread fuel scarcity in the
country continues to bite hard.
Government has also outlawed selling of petrol on roadsides and directed
the NSCDC official to arrest and prosecute offenders. He therefore
ordered the deployment of officers of the Corps to petrol stations across
the country to help check sharp practices and ensure the smooth supply and
distribution of the product.
Briefing Journalists on the development, the Commandant General said that
before the latest direct NSCDC had carried out 24-hour surveillance on oil
terminals where crude oil is being loaded and on the rigs where drilling
operations take place.
He said 280 officers have been deployed in Abuja metropolis to ease the
operations of NNPC and also officers of the corps have also been deployed
in the same vein in states like, Delta, Edo, Lagos, Ogun, Osun and Oyo
state.ý
ýThe Minister of State for Petroleum Resources and Group Managing Director
of the NNPC, Mr. Ibe Kachikwu, during the meeting, stated that the
involvement of NSCDC operatives became necessary following the need to
ensure total eradication of queues from fuel stations across the country
and for effective monitoring of the distribution system.
“This calls for effective monitoring of the supply system, especially at
the end points, to ascertain that what is trucked out from the depots is
delivered at the designated fuel stations and dispensed to the public in
the most efficient manner. We need you to be out there to help achieve
this; we can’t be at ease while Nigerians are going through so much pain
to get fuel.”
He called on the officers deployed for monitoring duties to be vigilant
and ensure that all the petrol designated for their respective stations is
delivered and dispensed to members of the public in a most efficient
manner.