The National Petroleum Authority (NPA) has secured the support of the police in the Upper East regional command to assist in curbing illegal fuel trading at the border towns and some fuel stations in the region.
NPA Chief Executive Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid enumerated illegal fuel trading in the region such as fuel smuggling at the border towns, selling of adulterated fuels, operating with expired license, and operating without proper safety standards.
He got the support to fight the menace when he paid a courtesy call on the Upper East Regional Police Commander, Dr. Sayibu Pabi Gariba.
Dr. Abdul-Hamid said he was worried about how some fuel station owners and their employees threaten to beat officers of the NPA when their outlets are locked.
“The only thing we are worried about is that when people are in violation of the law, and I mean the fuel stations or according to the standards of NPA, a certain fuel station is not operating with proper safety standards or that their licences have expired or that their product have failed the quality test and when they are locked up, the people forcibly break the seals and continue selling and sometimes they threaten our officers that don’t come here and lock our stations… we will beat you etc etc”, the NPA boss pointed out.
In response, Dr Gariba assured the NPA of the support of the regional command in providing security through “the various platforms to ensure the Upper East region is peaceful and safe so that people can go about their mandate without any fear.”
He said his command had structured their operations in such a way that the fuel stations and strategic storage were safe in the region.
“I assure you of the Police support that we are here to serve, and we can have a good collaboration with NPA to curb future occurrence of such illegalities. As I sit here, we are providing 24-hour security to some fuel stations in Bawku because of the security situation there. All the fuel stations we had intelligence they could be a target of some attack, we are providing some security,” he emphasized.
The visit to the regional police command was part of a five-day tour by the Chief Executive of NPA to the Northern part of the country to familiarise himself with some petroleum installations in Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Bono and Ashanti Regions.
Dr Abdul-Hamid and management of the Authority, on Monday, made the first stop at the Bolgatanga depot of the Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation Company (BOST).
The team was conducted around the facility by Mr Josiah Kwamina Atta, General Manager in charge of Terminal and Transmission at BOST.
They also visited the Regional Coordinating Council and Custom Officers at the Paga Border to court their support in dealing with fuel supply and export challenges in the region.
