Amid the scarcity of petrol as a result of importation and distribution of bad fuel across the country, no fewer than six filling station workers have been arrested for price hike in Kano State. They include four filling station managers and two pump attendants.
The Chairman, Kano State Public Complaint and Anti-corruption Commission, PCACC, Mahmoud Balarabe, who stated this while addressing newsmen said the persons were arrested at different filling stations in Kano metropolis for selling the product above the official pump price of N165 per litre.
Balarabe said the arrest followed a complaint received by the Commission over the hike by some filling stations who took advantage of the current situation to sell at exorbitant prices.
According to him, “on receiving the complaint, the commission swung into action and went to some filling stations along eastern bypass and Hadejia road, where it found some of them selling petrol at N200 and N208 per litre.
“During the operation, we arrested four managers of filling stations. One person was arrested while helping the manager of a filling station to adjust the pumping machine litre above N165.
“The other person is a fuel attendant and we arrested him after his manager climbed fence and escaped.
“There is a filling station we found them already sold 18,000 litres at N200 per litre, making N630,000 at the expense of innocent customers. The other filling station was found to be hoarding over 4,000 litres. We compelled them to continue selling the 4,000 litre to the buyers,” he said.
Balarabe said the commission would investigate the suspects and hand them over to the appropriate authorities for further action.
The Commission’s acting chairman however, vowed that it would not condone the practice which he termed as “corrupt act”.
SOURCE: Vanguard
