By Vincess Okushi
The 10th National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Godswill Akpabio has directed the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service, NCS, and the National Security Adviser, NSA, to lift the existing restriction order placed on the supply of petroleum products to border communities to allow the free circulation of the product without restrictions.
A motion by Senator Solomon Adeola (APC Ogun West) today at the plenary of the Red Chamber submitted that the fuel subsidy removal by the federal government has substantially put paid to the smuggling of the products.
Following the motion, the upper chamber, therefore, resolved that the federal government should consider its lifting even as they urged the Offices of the Comptroller General and NSA to intensify preventive and enforcement measures to combat smuggling of all kinds in the country.
In his debate, Senator Adeola, also informed the Senate that the federal government on November 6, 2019, through the Comptroller General of Customs directed that “No petroleum products are permitted to be discharged in any filling station within a radius of 20 kilometers to the border of Nigeria.”
He stresses that this directive seeks to checkmate the smuggling of Nigerian petroleum products, mostly premium motor spirit, PMS, to neighboring countries where there was a thriving market for petrol because of subsidy that was still on the product until May 29, 2023, when President Bola Tinubu announced its removal in his inaugural speech.
Adding that this led to the scarcity of petrol which brought untold hardship and major losses to businesses of residents and indigenes of the affected border communities, considering the mass population of the people affected in the border towns and communities.
Meanwhile, other senators also learned their voices to the untold hardships citizens of border communities face over restrictions on fuel as well as fertilizer, especially in the Northern part of the country.
Parts of the measures taken by the Red Chamber were to mandate the Committees on Customs and Excise, and National Security and Intelligence to ensure compliance and report back in four weeks for further legislative action.
