Over 400 filling stations of independent oil marketers located at border communities have remained shut since 2019 based on the Federal Government’s directive to halt the smuggling of petrol out of Nigeria to neighbouring nations.
While the Nigeria Customs Service declared on Monday that the stations would still be shut, oil marketers decried the closure of these facilities due to the revenue losses caused by the development.
The Customs insisted that it would continue to enforce the closure of the stations and sustain the crackdown on fuel smugglers through its Operation Whirlwind, especially due to the recent intense petrol scarcity in neighbouring Niger Republic.
It was reported that the petrol scarcity in Niger Republic made the cost of the product rise to about N8000/litre, a development that could trigger the smuggling of the commodity from Nigeria to the neighbouring nation.
However, the Nigeria Customs Service, through its spokesperson, Abdullahi Maiwada, declared in an interview with one of our correspondents that the NCS would not give room to smugglers, stressing that the agency had been confiscating smuggled petrol across the country’s borders.
“You can see us everywhere seizing smuggled fuel. Be it in Adamawa, Taraba, Kebbi, Seme, everywhere. I think if there is any successful operation, it is this Operation Whirlwind. We are really on them. We will not allow fuel to get out of Nigeria illegally.
“You confirm this from our recent seizures. We are not giving them space to smuggle fuel. And apart from the seizures, we are prosecuting kingpins of these smugglers. In Adamawa, for instance, there are some suspects that we are taking to court.
“So apart from seizing the products, we are getting those responsible for this and we are prosecuting them,” Maiwada stated.
On whether filling stations around border towns are to remain shut, the Customs spokesperson replied, “Yes they remain shut!”
Marketers said their members who own filling stations in these border communities have been out of business since 2019 when former President Muhammadu Buhari banned the supply of petrol within 20km of the border.
Nigeria shares frontiers with countries like Niger Republic in the North, Benin Republic in the West, Cameroon in the East, and Chad in the North.
