Subsidy Removal: Hoard fuel, lose C of O, Kwara gov warns marketers

The Kwara State governor and Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has cautioned oil marketers to avoid imposing needless hardship on the citizens through the creation of artificial fuel scarcity in the state and beyond.

The governor, in a statement signed on Tuesday by his Chief Press Secretary, Rafiu Ajakaye, said the present situation of not dispensing fuel to motorists without the government increasing the price was totally uncalled for.

The statement asked fuel marketers to immediately dispense fuel to the public under the normal pricing system since they had bought what they currently had at subsidized rates.

“Creating artificial scarcity amounts to an intentional misrepresentation of the statement of President Bola Tinubu on the question of fuel subsidy. The people should not be made to undergo any hardship.

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“The Governor urges the marketers to desist from anything that qualifies as economic sabotage of the people. Hoarding fuel bought at subsidised prices and creating panic in the state is opportunistic and will not be condoned.

“His Excellency, the Deputy Governor, Mr. Kayode Alabi, will be leading a task force to ensure that no fuel marketer causes undue hardship to the citizens in Kwara State.

“Fuel stations are to note that the task force will dip into their pits. Any filling stations found to be hoarding fuel will have their Certificate of Occupancy revoked, among other penalties.”

It was gathered that most of the petrol stations in the Ilorin area of the state closed down their stations and refused to sell fuel to motorists since the President, Bola Tinubu, announced during the inauguration on Monday that fuel subsidy would not be sustained by his administration.