Fuel Scarcity: Filling station managers, pump attendants arrested for hiking price in Kano

Amid the scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, otherwise known as petrol resultant of the importation and distribution of bad fuel across the country, no fewer than six filing station workers have been arrested for price hikes in Kano State.

The workers 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.

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 complaints, the commission swung into action and went to some filling stations along eastern bypass and Hadejia road, where it found some of them are selling petroleum at N200 and N208.

“During the operation, we have arrested 4 managers of filling stations. One person was arrested while helping the manager of a filling station to adjust the liter above N165.

“The other person is a fuel attendant and we arrested him after his manager climbed fence and ran away.

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“There is a filling station that we found that they already sold 18,000 litres at N200, making N630,000 at the expense of innocent people. 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 people,” he said.

Balarabe said the commission would investigate the suspects and hand them over to appropriate authorities for further action.

The Commission’s acting chairman however vowed that it would not condone the practice which he termed as “corrupt acts”.