Fuel dealer arraigned before court

Sunyani (B/A) Feb 19, GNA - Nana Kwame Aning, owner of TYCO filling station located on the Sunyani-Kumasi was on Friday put before the Sunyani High court for hoarding at his uncompleted fuel station and refusing to sell the commodity.

His plea was not taken on the charge of attempting to cause economic loss to the state and was granted 500 million cedis bail with one surety to reappear on February 22 this year.

Mr. Leonard A. Mensah, Supervising Judge, after listening to Mr. William Pobi, Principal State Attorney and Mr. W. Oppong, counsel for the accused, ordered that the police to guard the station till February 21, a proposed date for calibration to ensure that the fuel in the tank would not be tampered with.

"If the fuel is sold after the speculated increase, the difference should be paid into government chest", he said.

Earlier after the arrest, the Deputy Commissioner of Police Yaw Adu Gyimah, Brong-Ahafo Regional Police Commander, told newsmen that a police team, during an inspection of some filling stations in the municipality found at TYCO a stand-by tanker filled with 45,000 litres of fuel and an underground tanker loaded with 45,000 litres.

The Police Commander said when the police asked Nana Kwame to allow them to tow the stand by tanker to another filling station for sale to the general public, he refused.

He said Nana Kwame further stressed that the petrol would be used for calibration and had even ordered for another 45,000 litres consignment that was on the way.

DCP Gyimah said a letter dated February 7, 2005 from SGS company in Accra, which was to undertake the calibration exercise indicated that the tank should be completely empty before the team arrived for calibration on Monday, February 21.