The Senate has called on the federal government to lift the existing ban placed on the supply of petroleum products to border communities across the country.
This followed a motion by Senator Solomon Adeola (APC Ogun West).
The government had, in response to complaints by the NNPC that filling stations in border towns were channels for smuggling of subsidised petrol to neighbouring countries, through the Nigeria Customs Service, banned the supply of petroleum products to filling stations within 20km of the borders.
Daily Trust reports that the Senate said the ban had brought untold hardship to people in neighbouring communities.
Senator Adeola, in his motion, said: “This policy had brought untold hardship and major losses to businesses of the residents and indigenes of the affected border communities, which later made the Nigerian Customs to relax the policy slightly by giving license to two or three petrol stations in each of the local government areas that borders these neighbouring countries.
“But that remedy was just a drop of water in an ocean scarcity of petrol considering the mass population of the people affected in these border towns and communities.”