Amid worsening petrol scarcity in major cities, the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Kogi Command, on Wednesday, arrested two persons and sealed a station for allegedly dispensing adulterated product to motorists.
Suleiman Marafa, the state commandant of NSCDC, while parading the suspects at the command headquarters in Lokoja, said his men acting on intelligence, swung into action, and arrested one Sani Nuhu, a pump attendant, and Ibrahim Alih, pump engineer working for a filling station on Okene-Lokoja Highway.
The commandant equally disclosed that six drivers of Peugeot boxers who bought the fuel early Wednesday morning lodged complaints of the damage done to their vehicles, adding that after a critical examination of the product, it was discovered to be highly adulterated with water, hence, the arrest of the pump attendant and the engineer right at the station.
Marafa disclosed that the enabling laws of the corps empowered them to arrest and prosecute anyone circumventing the economic policies of the government. He called on the general public to avail security agencies with credible information that will lead to the bursting of crimes and criminality.
“This act of selling adulterated petrol to motorists and above the regulated price constitutes economic sabotage. We are empowered by the enabling law to arrest citizens trying to frustrate the economic policies of the government. Selling adulterated petrol and above the regulated price is sabotage, and the perpetrators will be treated as saboteurs”.
“When we complete our investigation, whoever is found culpable will definitely face the wrath of the law”.
“I’m using this medium to solicit the support of the general public to always give timely and reliable information to the security agencies. We can’t do it alone, we need the cooperation of the public to fight crime and criminality, and it is one of such collaboration that leads to the arrest of the staff of the filling station”.
“I urge you to say something when you see something, and all of us, when we do our part, we will be able to defeat criminals in whatever forms in our society”.
However, the pump attendant said he monitored the discharge of the product into the tank on Tuesday and it was satisfied okay but was surprised when the six customers accused him of selling adulterated petrol to them before the men of NSCDC arrested him.
In a related development, one of the motorists, Usman Jibrin, said, he took off from Bauchi on his way to Lagos, when he and his colleagues bought the fuel at the station they discovered that it was mixed with water, adding that immediately the pump attendant dispensed the petrol into his tank, all efforts to kick-start the engine failed, which prompted him to raise the alarm.
