LEADERSHIP.NG

Task Force personnel attached to the Bayelsa State Command of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), have apprehended three tankers suspected to be transporting adulterated Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) from a yet-to-be identified destination into Bayelsa along the Sagbama axis of the East-West road.

The Bayelsa State coordinator of IPMAN, Mr Bello Bina, who confirmed this to newsmen today, alleged that some unidentified policemen are currently trying to frustrate the effort of the Task Force by insisting that the product, suspected to be adulterated PMS, is owned by a highly influential personality.

According to him, when the efforts of the policemen failed, an unidentified male called him on the phone to plead with him to take some financial gratification to set the tankers free but that he turned down the offer, promising to get to the bottom of the matter.

He assured that being charged with the mandate by President Muhammadu Buhari to ensure that issues of pipeline vandalism, crude oil theft, and other criminal activities associated with the oil and gas sector are curbed in the Niger Delta, the efforts of his task force to apprehend the tankers would not be compromised.

In his words, “as I speak with you, some uniformed police officers at the Sagbama junction are trying to stop the arrest of the tankers conveying the adulterated petrol products.

“According to them, a prominent businessman with wide experience in the oil and gas sector, is the owner of the tankers and they are not willing to let us impound the tankers.”