Fuel Scarcity: NSCDC To Monitor Petrol Stations Against Black Market Operators

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.

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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.‎

‎The 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.