National Petroleum Authority is collaboraitng with the Upper East Regional Police Command to curb illegal fuel trading at the border towns and some fuel stations in the region.
Illigal fuel trading in the region such as fuel smuggling at the border towns, selling of adulterated fuel, operating with expired license, and operating without proper safety standards are said to be on the rise in that area.
It is against this reason why the NPA Chief Executive, Dr. Mustapha Abdul-Hamid moved to secure the support of the police when he paid a courtesy call on the Upper East Regional Police Commander, Dr. Sayibu Pabi Gariba.
Dr. Abdul-Hamid expressed worry about how some fuel station owners and its 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.”
Reacting, Dr Gariba assured the NPA of the support of the regional command in providing security through “the various platforms to ensure that 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 filling 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 24hour security to some filling stations in Bawku because of the security situation there. All the filling 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 familiarize himself with some petroleum installations in Upper East, Upper West, Northern, Bono and Ashanti Regions.
The Chief Executive 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 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.
By Vincent Kubi