The Kwabenya Police in Accra at dawn last Sunday arrested three fuel attendants and their manager for allegedly hoarding petrol in gallons and selling them at exorbitant prices to motorists.

Twenty six gallons of petrol were seized from one of the offices of the company when the police mounted a search.

The three, Mavis Owusua, Nora Ashigbi and Charlotte Asarewaa, together with their Station Manager, Wisdom Nutsukpui, all of Lucky Oil, Kwabenya, are currently assisting the police with their investigations.

The Kwabenya District Crime Officer, Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Mr Franklin Yevugah, said armed with an order from the Accra Regional Police Commander, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Mr Christian Yohonu, to look out for possible hoarding of fuel by filling stations, he and his team, throughout the week, went from one filling station to another in the area to check on their stock levels.

 

The Arrest

He said they observed a chaotic scene at the station in question last Saturday as many of the people complained they were not being attended to although they had been in the queue for hours.

According to Mr Yevugah, he and his team took control of the situation and managed to get motorists served throughout the day till around 2:30p.m. when the station said they had reached their limit of sale.

He said as a result of that revelation, his men left the scene to continue with their day-to-day work.

However, they became suspicious, at around 1 a.m. Sunday dawn, when on their usual patrol of the area, they realised that the station was selling fuel but this time from gallons.

Curious to find out what was happening, they interrogated a customer who had just been served upon which their suspicion of hoarding was confirmed.

Two of the customers they spoke to said they bought the 10 litre yellow plastic container at GHC 50 and the two-litre one at GHC 15 each.

The police arrested the four who were selling the fuel together with two customers who were handed over to the Kwabenya Station, where they took their statements. Later the two customers were released.

Granted bail

At the time of filing this report, the fuel attendants had also been released to return to the filling station to sell the products to motorists.