The governor of Ekiti State, Mr. Biodun Oyebanji, issued an order to all filling stations on Tuesday night to begin selling fuel at the authorized price or face being closed down permanently.
In order to execute the order, the governor directed the State Task Force on Petroleum Products and the state’s security agencies to begin moving around filling stations on Wednesday morning.
The instructions were given by Oyebanji during a meeting with the heads of the state’s security services, members of the state task force, and the leadership of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria.
He said, “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 unauthorised prices would be sealed indefinitely.
The governor said that state governors, under the aegis of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, will meet on the issue of the planned subsidy removal next week, adding that “Ekiti will not tolerate any attempt by any marketer to inflict hardship on the people through hoarding and unauthorised hike in price.
“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 till 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.
He directed the task force to visit all filling stations and seal off any filling station hoarding petroleum product, selling at unauthorised price or found to have manipulated their meters, adding that such would be after the task force might have supervised the sale of such hoarded product to the public.
The marketers, who apologised on behalf of their erring members, promised to deploy their task force to ensure compliance with the governor’s order, even as they promised to cooperate with the State Task Force and the state government to ensure that the petrol was available.
The governor, who appealed to the marketers to await further directives from the Federal Government on the planned subsidy removal, said “It will amount to share wickedness for anyone to hoard the product or unilaterally increase the price petroleum product before the full implementation of the policy.
Present at the meeting were the Commissioner of Police, Ekiti State Command, Dare Ogundare; Special Adviser to the Governor on Security Matters, Brigadier-General Ebenezer Ogundana (Rtd.); Director of State Security Service, Head of Service, Bamidele Agbede; Special Adviser to the Governor on Media, Mr. Yinka Oyebode and other top government officials.