ICPC: Two arrested at petrol station forcing customers to pay cash despite working POS

The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) says it has arrested an accountant of Oando filling station in Dutse Alhaji, Abuja, over alleged racketeering of the new naira notes.

In a statement on Friday, the commission said it was informed that the petrol station was insisting on cash payment and making customers withdraw new naira notes at a point of sale (POS) with high commission.

The commission, however, said it discovered that the POS was owned by the filling station accountant, while the sum of N1,000,000 was recovered from the POS attendant.

“The ICPC Monitoring Team had earlier received a tip-off that the said filling station deliberately disconnected its Point of Sale (POS) services so that motorists could not have access to the Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called Petrol, using their Automated Teller Machine (ATM) cards,” the statement by Azuka Ogugua, ICPC spokesperson, reads.

“Upon reaching the Petrol Station, the Team found out that motorists were forced to pay for the product in cash, and those without the new notes were directed to a POS operator directly opposite the Filling Station to access the cash.

“ICPC operatives found out that the POS did not only belong to the accountant of the Filling Station, but it was charging a very high exorbitant rate as commission against the directive of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“The sum of One Million Naira (N1,000,000) was discovered with the POS operator which the Team directed that should be paid into a bank account.

“The accountant was arrested alongside the POS operator, and both have been granted administrative bail by the Commission.”