The people of Yewa living in border communities such as Idi-Iroko, Imeko-Afon, Oja-Odan and other border areas in Ogun State have appealed to President Bola Tinubu to cancel the ban on the supply of petroleum products to communities within a 20-kilometre radius of the country’s border with the Republic of Benin.
The appeal was made in a statement made available to DAILY POST on Sunday by the National President of Yewa Defender Movement, Temi Amusan.
According to Amusan: “The suspension order by the Federal Government since 2019 has negatively impacted socio-economic activities with attendant hardships on the lives and livelihoods of people living in the border towns and communities like the Idi-Iroko axis as only four independent petroleum marketers are allowed to dispense the commodity to hundreds of thousands of people living in the area.”
DAILY POST recalls that former President Muhammadu Buhari had in 2019 banned the supply of petroleum products to Nigerians living within 20km of the country’s frontiers to curb the diversion of subsidised fuel to neighbouring countries.
Yewa residents said that with the removal of fuel subsidy by President Tinubu, the subsisting restriction order on the supply of the product to the affected border communities “is no longer justified.”
Amusan insisted: “The removal of fuel subsidy means that the smuggling of petrol is no longer profitable and that the commodity should freely circulate within the country without restrictions.”
He further avowed that security agents who mount many illegal checkpoints along the border axis are “taking advantage of the existing suspension order on petrol to harass and extort border residents found with as little as five litres of petrol purchased for domestic use.”
He urged the President to address the issue to ameliorate the sufferings of the people.
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