Rivers To Prosecute Fake Petroleum Dealers

The Rivers State Government is set to prosecute anyone caught adulterating petroleum products in the state.

Dr George Nwolu, the permanent Secretary in the state’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources, made the statement in Port Harcourt recently when he visited families of victims of the kerosene explosion that occurred last weekend in Port Harcourt.

Nwolu, who spoke to newsmen at No. 6 Bernard Carr Street, the scene of one of the explosions, described perpetrators of petroleum adulteration as undesirable elements.

He said that government would not allow such evil to thrive in the state, noting that the primary duty of government was to protect lives and property of its people.

The permanent secretary, who later visited one of the victims at the Nigeria Police Clinic, Port Harcourt, said the ministry had set up a taskforce to investigate the source of the adulterated kerosene.

“The state’s Ministry of Energy and Natural Resource has empowered the petroleum taskforce to work in collaboration with security agents to sanitise the sector and arrest anyone found wanting,” he said.

Nwolu, however, advised the public not to indulge in panic buying, noting that available information indicated that the NNPC was on top of the situation.

No fewer than five persons lost their lives  while many others sustained injuries as a result of kerosene explosions recorded in Port Harcourt and its environs in the last two weeks.