By Chineme Okafor in Abuja
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on Wednesday said it has arrested and charged a number of petrol marketers and black market operators to court for allegedly sabotaging its efforts to bring to an end the biting scarcity of petrol in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja.
It said in a statement from its Group General Manager, Public Affairs, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, in Abuja, that two managers of an indigenous petrol station were arrested as well as some black market operators by its special task force set up to monitor the services of petrol stations within the period of the scarcity.
According to it, the arrests and subsequent charge of the petrol hawkers to court were part of its efforts to sanitise the fuel supply and distribution system.
It added that this was also to eliminate the queues, and that it has stepped up the arrest and prosecution of erring marketers and fuel hawkers across the country.
“The NNPC special task force on filling stations monitoring has made a series of arrests including two filling station managers who diverted 66,000 litres of petrol and six illegal hawkers of petrol in Abuja.
“The two managers of Azman filling stations in Nyanya and Kuje, two suburbs of Abuja, were arrested after close monitoring by the team for diverting trucks of petrol meant for their stations to unknown destinations. They have been handed over to the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps for prosecution,†said the statement.
Details later…
