Men of the Niger State Command of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps have arrested eight trucks laden with 469,000 litres of Premium Motor Spirit and their drivers in Mokwa, Niger State, on their way to Babana, a border town between Nigeria and the Republic of Benin.
According to the Niger State Commandant of the NSCDC, Yakubu Ayuba, six of the trucks belong to one marketer.
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation disclosed this in a statement issued in Abuja on Wednesday, stating that two of the trucks contained 66,000 litres, twice the quantity in a normal truck.
The Comptroller of Operations, Department of Petroleum Resources, Abdillahi Isa, said only one truck out of the eight had a genuine waybill to a recognised station in Babana.
He stated that the owners of the other trucks would have to explain their mission and destinations, stressing that if it was established that they were involved in products’ diversion, they would pay a fine of N200 per litre to the government.
The statement noted that the arrest confirmed the NNPC’s position that products’ hoarding and diversion were responsible for the fuel supply shortages in some parts of the country.