Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal has warned that the government would revoke the Certificate of Occupancy of any filling station found to be hoarding fuel in order to create artificial scarcity or selling above the official rate.
Governor Tambuwal said that the government, along with the Department of Petroleum Resources, would set up a joint task force to move round filling stations to ascertain their compliance with laid down rules and regulations guiding their operations.
The governor’s threat followed the lingering excruciating fuel scarcity being experienced in Sokoto town and its environs in the past two weeks.
Speaking when he inspected the sale of fuel at some filling stations in Sokoto on Sunday, Tambuwal said government would not fold its arms and watch unscrupulous marketers hold the people to ransom.
He said that since the supply of the commodity from the Nigeria national Petroleum Corporation had not ceased, no one should create artificial scarcity to burden the people.
The governor, who was accompanied by the Speaker of the state House of Assembly, Salihu Maidaji, urged all those hoarding the commodity to quickly open their stations for the sale of the commodity to the public.
“The committee will go round, and any filling station found hoarding fuel will face the full wrath of the law,” Tambuwal added.
The governor commended the management of one of the filling stations visited, SAK Petroleum, for discharging the commodity promptly and at the official price.
