Border closure: Fuel Smuggling Reduces in Adamawa

The recent closure of Nigeria’s borders has significantly led to a reduction in the smuggling of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol, in Adamawa state, officials have said.

The Operations Controller of Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) in charge of Adamawa, Alhaji Ibrahim Ciroma, stated this in the Border village while touring border filling stations to ensure compliance with the Federal Government directives.

Ciroma said that before the closure, Adamawa used to received 100 trucks of fuel daily but now the supply has dropped to between 40 and 30 trucks.

“This border closure has done a lot of good at checking smugglers. Prior to this closure, the number of trucks we received in Adamawa was up to 100 trucks per day but today it has dropped to between 30 and 40 trucks.

“So, it’s a clear indication that fuel is not finding it’s way out of the country,” Ciroma said.

He noted that while compliance by filling stations in prohibited areas had been effected 100 percent, measures were also taken to ensure that other filling stations not within the Prohibited zone were selling so that people within the Prohibited zone can easily get fuel without traveling a long distance.

On the effort to sustain steady supply throughout the yuletide period, Ciroma said the people of Adamawa have nothing to fear.

” I want the people of Adamawa to be rest assured that there will be no scarcity; we have substantial quantity at the Yola depot and all filling stations are selling except those in Prohibited zones.

 “And yesterday I held a meeting with IPMAN and they assured me that they will continue to bring in fuel to make sure there is no scarcity in Adamawa,” Ciroma said.