The Association of Petroleum Marketers in Badagry, Lagos State on Wednesday decried alleged extortion by officials of Nigeria Customs Service in the area.
Alhaji Abdul-Ganiyu Adelani, Chairman of the association, told the News Agency of Nigeria in Badagry that extortion by customs men was affecting the running of their businesses in the area.
According to Adelani, different teams of customs men from the Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ Command, Ikeja are in the habit of visiting petrol stations in Badagry demanding for money and operating licence.
He said: “They will disguise under Joint Border Patrol, threatening to seal your filling stations if you don’t cooperate with them.
“After you have filled up their hillux pick up with petrol, they will be demanding between N200,000 and N300,000, if not they will threaten to seal your station over alleged fuel smuggling.
“Some of them will come and be checking your books and station as if they are from Department of Petroleum Resources.
“At the end, they will be demanding for money.”
Adelani said many petrol marketers in the area are out of business due to the activities of the customs officials.
He said: “Everybody knows that we are collecting loans from banks to do this business and when we cannot pay back our loans due to excesses of customs officials, the station will be shut down.”
Adelani appealed to the Federal Government to wade into the matter before marketers in Badagry run out of business, adding that not all marketers were smugglers.
Reacting to the allegation, Jerry Attah, Spokesman for Nigeria Customs Service, Federal Operations Unit Zone ‘A’ Ikeja, however, denied the allegation of extortion by officials of the zone.
According to him, there is no report of such allegation from any of the petroleum marketers submitted or brought to their office.
Attah said the zone would set up a team to investigate the allegations, urging the marketers to write directly to the command.
NAN.
