Delta warns against illegal petroleum task force on highways
Delta State Government has come hard with a warning against the activities of illegal petroleum task force on highways that extort petroleum tanker drivers, adding that it has put mechanisms in place to bring perpetrators to book as well as curb the illegal activities in the state.
Senior Special Assistant ,(SSA) to the Governor Ifeanyi Okowa on Petroleum Products Monitoring, Chief Frank Ojenima, in a statement in Asaba, yesterday, expressed government’ displeasure at the rate at which illegal task force checkpoints increased in the state and urged culprits to desist from the act.
Ojenima, lamented that the illegal task force perpetrators do not remit to government coffers; hence pose a threat to the economic growth of the state.
Ojenima recounted the confrontations between the illegal task force and tanker drivers which led to loss of lives and property in recent times and harped on the need to checkmate sharp practises in the sector.
SSA, Petroleum Products Monitoring, said “It has come to the knowledge of the state government that some persons have constituted themselves into an illegal task force to mount unauthorised petroleum checkpoints within the state. They harass and beat up truck drivers, while collecting money, causing nuisance and traffic on the road.
“We have put a monitoring team across the state to checkmate the menace caused by the petroleum illegal checkpoints in the state.”
He disclosed that the task force has liaised with security agencies to bring to book those involved in the act.
In his words: “Let me use this medium to warn them to stay off the road, because the monitoring team will be going round. If they don’t stop this act, the law will catch up with them.”
He charged tanker drivers apprehended by the illegal task force to report to the office of the petroleum monitoring in Asaba.
He also warned those involved in illegal oil bunkering to desist from the act, as it constitutes an economic sabotage to the country and environmental degradation.
