Fishermen petition Tinubu, Gov Eno over alleged sealing of fuel stations by Army in Akwa-ibom

From Lovina Anthony, Akwa-ibom

Fishermen on the platform of ‘Watch Out Multi-purpose Co-operative Association of Nigeria’, Ibaka,Mbo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State have Petitioned President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration and Governor Umo Eno over the alleged sealing of fuel stations in Ibaka by the operatives of Joint Task Force.

The association, however urged the President and the governor to direct the operatives of the Joint Task Force to unseal the fuel stations, to cushion the sufferings and hardships caused by the sealing of those fuel stations in the area.

It could be recalled that Military operatives at Ibaka under the guise code named Operation Delta Safe (a Joint Taskforce Operation) had sealed up six filling stations in the river line community and impounded drums of PMS, drums of AGO and 2 trucks of PMS of which had 45,000 litres each.

The Spokesperson of the Association, Ade Johnbull who spoke to newsmen Akwa-ibom, lamented that fishing activities have been grounded for almost one week due to artificial fuel scarcity caused by the incident and called on governor Eno to wade in, so that normalcy would return to the area.

According to him, ”As you can see, There is no activity going on here because our people cannot access the filling stations to buy fuel for our businesses.

“We don’t know what happened, we just woke up in the morning to see the Army sealed up all the filling stations here . I approached one of them and he told me that the order was from above, so I don’t know what transpired. It started since Friday last week and it has been very difficult for us because some people will take boat to as far as Ibaka to get fuel and come to sell at exorbitant price like N1,000 a litre,some N1,500, unlike when the filling stations were open, we were buying at N850 a litre.

‘This has affected our business because you can’t go for fishing unlike before even if you come back around 11Pm, you’ll just go to the filling stations and buy fuel with your drum or gallon. Why should somebody spend upto N400,000 on fuel just for fishing? We are pleading with governor Umo Eno and the federal government to intervene in the matter immediately.” he stated.

Earlier, the Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Oro chapter, Otuakak Emenyi who spoke to newsmen, described the closure and impoundment of members’ products as unlawful and called on the army to restore the seized products and open up the filling stations within one week of the press statement or members in Oro nation would be mandated to stop sale of petroleum products till the issue is resolved.

He explained that the victims were duly licensed by the federal government and were selling at N850 per liter of fuel saying that allegation by the Army that such price was against government approved fuel pump price holds no water as marketers sourced their products at exorbitant rate.

The statement read partly, “Our members at Ibaka axis of Mbo L.G.A. said that troops of military personnel with Hilux and patrol trucks had invaded filling stations, impounded 44 drums of PMS, 2 drums of AGO and 2 trucks of PMS of which has 45,000 litres each.

When contacted, the Army Public Relations Officer, 2 Brigade, Nigeria Army, Ibawa, Abak LGA, Adejimi Adebowale, said he would make inquiry of what actually happened and get back as he was in Abuja, for a programme.