Nigerian Customs Service (NCS) Officer attached to the Federal Operations Unit Zone D in Adamawa, has revealed how he intercepted tankers with refined petroleum products being smuggled to West African countries.
Gatekeepers News reports that the Customs officer, in a video, broadcast the tankers he detained on Wednesday, November 2, at Malabo Checkpoint on Belel Road, Adamawa state. According to him, the suspects of the petroleum-laden tankers were about to smuggle Petrol to Cameroon when he intercepted them.
He also noted that he has been receiving calls from senior officials of the NCS who wants him to release the suspects.
It is noteworthy that the development comes months after the Comptroller General of the NCS, Hameed Ali faulted the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd over the claim that it supplies about 98 million litres of petrol for the country on a daily basis while putting the actual consumption at 60 million litres per day.
Ali blamed NNPC Ltd for some of the infractions in the country’s oil sector, saying the issue was not all about the smuggling of petroleum products out of the country.
He further questioned the authenticity of the claims of the NNPC on the quantities of petroleum products supplied and consumed by Nigerians on daily basis, wondering why the NNPC would allow the lifting of 98 million litres of petrol per day when it knew the actual consumption is only 60 million litres per day.
He also decried the country’s current subsidy regime which is projected to gulp over N6 trillion in 2023, describing it as a fraud.
“The issue is not about the smuggling of petroleum. I have always argued this with NNPC. If we are consuming 60m litres of petrol per day by their own computations, why in the world do you allow the lifting of petroleum of 98 million litres per day? Why, if you know this is our consumption, why do you allow that lifting? That is one. That computation to me is not anything to be believed because scientifically, you cannot tell me that I filled my tank today and tomorrow, I will still fill my tank with the same quantity of fuel.
“And if I’m running a petrol station, for instance, today, if I go to Minna Depot and lift a truck and I’m taking it to Kaduna; if reach Kaduna in the evening and offload that truck that evening, there’s no way I could have sold that petrol for you to have said that it has been expended.
“So, how do we get to 60 million litres every day? These are my problems. If you say you release 98 million litres and then, we use only 60 million litres; the balance will be 38 million litres. How many trucks will that 38 million litres every day be? That will be almost 500 trucks; which roads are they following, where are they carrying them to”, he asked.
