The governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, has ordered all filling stations in the state to begin selling fuel at the authorized price or face being closed down permanently.
As a result, the Governor has ordered the State Task Force on Petroleum Products and the state’s security organizations to patrol filling stations beginning on Wednesday morning in order to execute the order.
These instructions were given by Governor Oyebanji on Tuesday at a meeting he hosted at the governor’s office in Ado-Ekiti with representatives from the state task force, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).
He instructed the task team to inspect every filling station and close any that were discovered to be manipulating their meters, hoarding petroleum products, or selling at an illegal price. This is after the task team may have oversaw the public sale of such hoarded goods.
In order to ensure the task force’s success, he also gave the security agencies instructions to provide necessary security.
In addition to promising to work with the State Task Force and the state government to assure the availability of the petroleum products, the marketers apologized on behalf of their errant members and pledged to send out their own task force to ensure compliance with the Governor’s order.
It would be pure wickedness, according to the Governor, for anyone to hoard the product or unilaterally raise the price of petroleum products before the policy is fully implemented. The governor made an appeal to the marketers to wait for additional Federal Government directives regarding the planned removal of subsidies.
“We will not sit here and allow some people to make life difficult for our people. The subsidy removal has not been effected. Any filling station hoarding fuel or selling at unauthorized prices will be sealed indefinitely. The task force and the security agents will go out Wednesday morning. I have called this meeting so we can both look at the situation together because any filling station that is sealed will remain so until the end of the year.
“No station has the right to hoard fuel. If they did not give you fuel or you have exhausted your supply, we will understand, and nobody will blame you for not selling fuel,” the Governor said.
Next week, state governors will meet under the auspices of the Nigeria Governors Forum (NGF) to discuss the issue of the proposed subsidy removal. According to Governor Oyebanji, Ekiti will not put up with any attempts by marketers to put the public through hardship by hoarding or unjustified price increases.
The meeting was attended by the Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Mr. Yinka Oyebode, Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Brigadier-General Ebenezer Ogundana (retired), Director of State Security Service, Head of Service, Barrister Bamidele Agbede, and other top government officials. The Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State Command, Ogundare Emmanuel, was also in attendance.
