Court Fines Customs, Orders Release of 24 Petrol Laden Tankers in Ogun

Gilbert Ekwugbe

The Federal High Court (FHC), Abeokuta has declared as illegal the seizure of 24 tankers fully loaded with 50,000 litres of Petroleum Motor Spirit (PMS), also known as Petrol by the Idiroko border command of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS).

In a judgement delivered by Justice Shittu Abubakar on the 9th of August, 2022, and a copy made available to newsmen, the court ordered the Customs service to pay the plaintiffs the monetary value of all the said Petroleum Product (PMS) contained in the 24 tanker Trucks of 50,000 liters capacity each.

According to the plaintiffs’ councel, George Oyeniyi, the court ordered the Customs service to immediately release the 24 Tanker Trucks of Petroleum Products with their respective content of PMS illegally seized and impounded by the service.

The counsel said that the court ordered the following, “The purported auction and or sale and/or transfer of the said 5 out of the 24 tanker trucks loaded with Petroleum Product (PMS) unlawfully seized, impounded and purportedly auctioned by the agents of the Defendants on the 10th day of November, 2019 presently kept at the custody of the defendants commanded at Idiroko, Ogun State is hereby set aside.

“That the defendants be and are hereby ordered to pay the Plaintiffs the monetary value of all the said Petroleum Product (PMS) contained in the aforesaid 24 Tanker Trucks of 50,000 liters capacity each (whose particulars are contained in the Schedule (B) attached), unlawfully seized and impounded by the agents of the Defendants on the 10th day of November, 2019 at the usual selling price per liter for all the content of the said Five Tanker Trucks.”