Ghana’s petroleum downstream regulator, the National Petroleum Authority (NPA) is seeking the support of the police in the Upper East Region to curb illegal fuel trading at the border towns and some fuel stations in the region.
The NPA’s Chief Executive, Dr Mustapha Abdul-Hamid noted that illegal fuel trading in the region such as fuel smuggling at the border towns, selling of adulterated fuels, operating with expired licences and operating without proper safety standards are a major cause of concern to the authority.
The Chief Executive, who is leading officials of the authority on five days’ visit to the three Northern regions to inspect petroleum installations, said this when he paid a courtesy call on the Upper East Regional Police Commander, Dr Sayibu Pabi Gariba.
Dr Abdul-Hamid said he was worried about how some fuel stations owners and their employees threaten to beat officers of the NPA when their outlets are locked up.
“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 has failed the quality test and when they are locked up, the people forcibly break the seals and continue selling. Sometimes, they threaten to beat our officers should they go and lock up the stations.”
In response, Dr Gariba assured the NPA of the support of the Regional Command by providing security through “the various platforms to ensure the Upper East Region is peaceful and safe for the people to go about their mandate without any fear.”
He said his command had structured its operations in such a way that the filling stations and strategic storage facilities 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 the NPA to curb the future occurrence of such illegalities. We are providing 24-hour security to some filling stations in Bawku because of the security situation there. All the filling stations where we had intelligence could be a target of some attack are being provided with some security,” he emphasised.
The visit to the Upper East Regional Police Command was part of the five-day tour of the area by the Chief Executive of NPA to the Northern part of the country to familiarize himself with some petroleum installations in the 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 round the facility by Mr 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.
Ghana: NPA Boss Visits BOST Depot, Ghana Gas, Others To Understand Their Operations
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
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