North West Region: Vehicles and thousands of liters of contraband fuel seized in crackdown

By Bakah Derick in Bamenda 

Several vehicles and over seven thousand liters of contraband fuel have been seized in the Northwest region.

The information was revealed to this reporter Friday July 27, 2018 by the North Regional Delegate for Water and Energy just shortly after North West Governor Adolph Lele L’Afrique paid a visit to the delegation to see the seized fuel and vehicles.
 

NW Regional Delegate for Water and Energy Antoine Ndodjeng Bossong

“We observed along the town that people have continued to sell this fuel at all the points we succeeded to remove last year. The Governor called us to a security meeting concerning this issue and asked us to start again this activity that is why on the 21^st of July a big operation was made by the commission fighting against this activity in the region and we succeeded to get more than 7500liters of contraband fuel and more than four vehicles; three liteace and one carina E.” The delegate Antoine Ndodjeng Bossong said.

According to him, the return of this contraband fuel to the streets of Bamenda after last year’s crackdown has been catalyzed by the sociopolitical and security situation in the region since the various forces of law and order are now more involved in handling the crisis. Even the curfew according to the delegate is contributing its quota but then efforts must be made to secure the region’s economy and people. 

Seized vehicles

As to the sanctions awaiting those who were importing or dealing with the contraband fuel, the delegate stated “regarding the regulations in force, when we get someone we send him or her to the judiciary police to follow procedure. The regulation in force also gives us the opportunity to sanction and the sanction say that we have to calculate the capacity or quantity of the product being transported multiplied by the price in the region or in Bamenda; it depends on the locality where the product is seized. We give administrative fines and we give them the opportunity to come to pay. They pay this money to the coffers of the state.”

On the quality of the fuel, the delegate explained that the fact that they are seized dose not necessarily mean they are bad; it is because it is not allowed to import fuel and that is why it is called contraband. “We cannot say that it’s a bad fuel because we have characteristic of our fuel and at the level of Nigeria they have characteristics of their products. It is true that sometimes the characteristics might be the same with our own. That is why we cannot say it is a bad product. It’s a good product but its contraband”

According to laid down regulations the seized fuel will be tested and if found useful, it will be sold and the funds divided at various levels. While part of the funds will be paid to the state treasury, part to the administration and part to fund the commission in charge of recovery.