Lift Ban On PMS Supply To Borders, Senate Tells FG

Senate has called on the Federal Government to lift the restrictions on the supply of petroleum products to border communities in Nigeria.
The Upper Chamber, therefore, directed the Comptroller General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) and the National Security Adviser (NSA) to facilitate the implementation of the unrestricted supply and prevent smuggling of the producst in any form.
The call became imperative since the reason for the ban has been overtaken by the recent removal of subsidy on petroleum products.
They said fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government has substantially put paid to the smuggling of the products, hence petroleum products should be allowed to circulate freely without restrictions.
The resolutions followed the consideration of a motion to that effect sponsored by Senator Solomon Adeola (Ogun West) at plenary Tuesday.
Senator Adeola, while leading debate on the motion, informed his colleagues that the Federal Government had on November 6, 2019, through the Comptroller General of Customs, directed that “no petroleum product is permitted to be discharged in any filling station within a radius of 20 kilometres to the border” of Nigeria.
He noted that the directive was to checkmate smuggling of Nigerian petroleum products, mostly premium motor spirit (PMS), to the neighbouring countries where there was a thriving market for petrol because of subsidy that was still on the product until May 29, 2023 when President Bola Tinubu announced its removal in his inaugural speech.
His words, “This policy had brought untold hardship and major losses to businesses of the residents and indigenes of the affected border communities, which later made the Nigerian Customs to relax the policy slightly by giving license to two or three petrol stations in each of the Local Government Areas that borders these neighbouring countries.
“But that remedy was just a drop of water in an ocean considering the mass population of the people affected in these border towns and communities”, he stressed.
The lawmaker said the suspension order has really affected the people living in border communities across Yewaland in Ogun State, particularly in Idiroko axiswhere he disclosed only five licensed independent petroleum marketers are allowed to dispense the commodity to over 500,000 residents with over 150 dispersed towns and villages.
Senator Adeola argued that “since there is no longer subsidy on our petroleum products as proclaimed by the President, there is no longer justification for the restriction order, because the price of petrol across the international border has also gone up in line with the new price regime across Nigeria”.
All the Senators who contributed to the motion, lamented the “untold hardships” faced by the people living in border communities over restrictions on fuel and fertilizer, especially in the Northern part of the country.
The Senate also resolved to mandate its Committees on Customs and Excise, and National Security and Intelligence, when constituted, to ensure compliance and report back in four weeks for further legislative action.

By: Nneka Amaechi-Nnadi, Abuja