'Edo govt officials not scared of filling station owners'

• Published date: 02 February 2023
• Publication title: Nigeria - The Nation

Edo State Commissioner for Mining and Energy Ethan Uzamere has said officials of the ministry are neither scared nor being intimidated by owners of filling stations.

He said the ministry officials were monitoring the supply and sale of petroleum products, to prevent hoarding or hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS/petrol).

Uzamere spoke yesterday in Benin at an interactive session with reporters.

He said: 'Petroleum products are on the exclusive legislative list of the Federal Government. As a state, what we are doing is to help the marketers in Edo to get more petroleum products to be available for the residents.

'The Ministry of Mining and Energy has been monitoring the situation. We have a team that monitors the sale of petroleum products. We also assist the filling stations with security, as many marketers complain of not feeling secured while selling petroleum products at their filling stations.'

'Systematic solution must be taken to resolve issues. What we are doing is to monitor the supply chain of petroleum products and the filling stations for the sale of the products. The right to monitor petroleum products is on the Federal Government's agencies. As a state, we are partnering Federal Government agencies to check the situation.'

Edo Chairman of Major Marketers Dealers Association, Tony Aghedo, described as most unfortunate what residents were going through.

He said: 'In my over 25 years of being a dealer, I have never had it so rough...