The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in Adamawa has embarked on sealing of illegal filling stations in the state.
The exercise had led to sealing of some filling stations including that of a serving Adamawa House of Assembly member (name withheld). The filling stations so far sealed are in Gombi, Hong, Mubi North and Mubi South Local Government Areas.
Speaking on the exercise, the DPR Operations Controller in charge of Adamawa, Alhaji Ibrahim Ciroma, said the department had identified 45 illegal stations in the state.
“We have sent the lists to the police so that the can get them dismantled.
“It is through these illegal stations that you have all those malpractices like diversion, smuggling and so on,” Ciroma said.
The controller who spoke on the discovery of one of the illegal station at the outskirts of Mubi town along the Mubi-Gella road, lamented that the station which was found with thousands of Jerrycans use for smuggling products was operating very close to a security checkpoint unchallenged by the securities.
“The station have a warehouse with more than a thousand jerrycans.
“This (smuggling) has been happening and we have many check points on this border road and nobody has done anything about it.
“We are able to locate this place on a tip off; somebody told us what is happening here.
“I will continue to call on security agencies to do their work properly. One just can’t understand why we have so many check points along this road and these people pass without any challenge.
“This is one of major routes which products are smuggle to Cameroon,” Ciroma said.
The DPR team also discovered many jerrycans filled with fuel products stored in a small Ruga settlement in Mubi South LGA by the smugglers who ran away on sighting the DPR team.
