By: Adeosun Ewatomi
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, has cautioned Independent Petroleum Marketers against patronising illegal oil bunkerers, describing the acts as economic crimes.
The commission said the Marketers were procuring adulterated products and dispensing same to vehicle owners in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital.
The Uyo Zonal Director of the EFCC, Assistant Commander of the EFCC, ACE 1 Oshodi Johnson gave the warning when representatives of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Akwa Ibom state’s Coordinating Committee, paid him a courtesy visit.
According to him, the warning became imperative to avoid the unpleasant consequences of committing economic crimes.
Oshodi explained that the mandate of the EFCC authorizes it to tackle all cases of illegal oil bunkering and other acts of economic and financial crimes, warning that the Commission would stop at nothing to deal with any of such cases.
“f you’re not aiding, abetting or conspiring with illegal bunkerers, you don’t have a problem with us,” Oshodi said.
“We just want to discourage and discontinue the activities of illegal bunkerers because they sell to you, they bring their illegal products to you, but it’s high time we brought these things down.”
On the testing of products by the commission’s officials, Oshodi explained that it is meant to check illegal oil bunkering and safeguard the integrity of supply of petroleum products.
“Concerning our testing processes, I can assure you that the EFCC has the best laboratory that we just launched in Port Harcourt, it is a complete forensic laboratory of international standard”, he said .
He also assured IPMAN of sustained collaboration in order to curb the adulteration of petroleum products in the state and the country at large.
However, the IPMAN’s Chairman, Comrade Francis Udeyen said his team paid Oshodi a visit to explore ways of sanitizing the petroleum downstream sector of the economy and to create sustainable synergy between the Commission and IPMAN.
He further sought clarification on the mandate of the EFCC, especially its legal authority to test samples of petroleum products.
“We need to be informed on how the EFCC is involved in our line of business”, he said.