Stakeholders in the petroleum industry in Oyo, Osun States and environs have threatened to halt operations with immediate effect.

This according to them will occur if the driver and a truckload of diesel arrested at Gbongan, Osun State by the monitoring team of the Inspector General of Police (IGP), on Saturday, are not released.

The stakeholders made this known during an emergency meeting attended by the Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Oyo, Osun States and environs, Alhaji Bukola Mutiu; Vice-chairman, Alhaji Olalekan Lawal; and the Chairman, Petroleum Tankers Driver branch of NUPENG (PTD), Alhaji Hammed Hamzat and some representatives of Independent Marketers Branch of NUPENG (IMB).

Briefing journalists after the meeting, the stakeholders noted that the IGP monitoring team has assumed the role of Nigeria Midstream/Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), which is the police of the Nigerian petroleum industry.

Narrating how the driver was arrested and the truckload of diesel was detained at Gbongan Police Station, Chairman of the stakeholders, Alhaji Bukola Mutiu, said: “The tanker loaded at a private depot in Lagos and was heading to Osogbo before the driver was flagged down at Gbongan junction by the IGP monitoring team led by one Taiwo Animashaun allegedly giving flimsy excuses to detain the driver and the tanker.

“Our members have been subjected to a series of harassment and extortion at Gbongan junction for quite a long time. We have taken various steps to stop this harassment.

“We are in a situation whereby we are battling with the issue of petrol unavailability, these people who claimed to be members of the IGP monitoring team are compounding the problems.

“The primary purpose of creating the Inspector General of Police (IGP) monitoring team was to monitor illegal activities of pipeline vandals whose presence are noticable at oil-producing states. We wonder why the team chose Gbongan junction which is not a oil-producing area to carry out its operations.

“On this note, we call on the Osun State Commissioner of Police to order the release of the fuel tanker and the driver detained at Gbongan Police station, failure to do this, our members will be directed to withdraw their services by suspending all operations with immediate effect.

“The implication of this is that there will be no loading of petroleum products from depots to Oyo and Osun States.”