Osun State Government on Thursday warned owners of filling stations against hoarding or diversion of fuel allocated to the state, to avoid the wrath of law.
The Chairman of the Petroleum Monitoring Committee of the state, Hon Kazeem Akinleye who dropped the warning in a statement in Osogbo, stated that the fuel monitoring committee put in place by the state government will expose those behind current untold hardship being inflicted on the good people of Osun State and appealed to them to be good ambassadors of the state.
According to him, “findings from the relevant agencies revealed that Osun state was allocated several tankers of PMS which are not reflecting across filling stations in the state, an indication that diversion may have been happening”.
Hon. Akinleye, who is also the Chief of Staff to the Governor said the PMS Monitoring committee has contacted the relevant authorities and is therefore aware of the actual PMS allocation to Osun state including the actual list of companies and stations allocated those PMS.
“We have contacted the top management of the NNPC Limited and we have full details of Oil marketers and the exact number of PMS allocated to each of them from January to date. There are clear evidence that some owners of filling stations are diverting PMS instead of bringing it to Osun.
“We are by this statement placing on notice all owners of filling stations in Osun state that we have all the facts about allocated PMS. We will soon commence physical monitoring exercise and we will not hesitate to invoke regulatory actions on those found wanting.
“To make the exercise very inclusive , His Excellency, Mr Governor has approved the expansion of the committee to include members of civil society coalition. The committee will host its maiden meeting very soon”, the Committee Chairman noted.
Hon Akinleye assured members of the public that the committee started its job by getting to the root of actual PMS allocation to the state, informing the public that the monitoring activities will expose those behind current untold hardship being inflicted on the good people of Osun State.
“As part of the palliative measures, we are looking into various options. One of such include temporary free bus ride especially within the high population areas which will be launched very soon
“We reassure the public that the state government is acting fast to ease the burden and pain our people are passing through. The impact of several efforts we are making will soon be felt by the people”, the Committee Chairman concluded.
