The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation NNPC has raised alarm over the proliferation of fuel stations in communities with international land and coastal borders across the country,
insisting that the development has energized unprecedented cross-border smuggling of petrol to neighboring countries, making it difficult to sanitize the fuel supply and distribution matrix in the country.
Leading a top Management team of the corporation on a visit to the Comptroller-General of the Nigerian Customs Service, Retired Colonel Hameed Ali, the Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Dr. Maikanti Baru, revealed that detailed study conducted by the NNPC indicated strong correlation between the presence of the frontier stations and the activities of fuel smuggling syndicates.
He said that the activities of the smugglers had led to recent observed abnormal surge in the evacuation of petrol from less than thirty-five million litres to more than sixty million litres per day which is in sharp contrast with established national consumption pattern.
Providing a detailed presentation of the findings, Dr Baru informed that sixteen states, having amongst them sixty-one Local Government Areas with border communities, account for two thousand two hundred and one registered fuel stations.
Responding Retired Colonel Ali, said the Service would work with the corporation to stem the tide of cross-border smuggling of petroleum products, noting that all hands must be on deck to ensure the economic survival of the country.
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