About a hundred suspected illegal fuel dealers were on Saturday arrested at various locations in and around the Tema municipality and Ashiaman in a three-hour exercise mounted by a joint military/police team to clamp down on their activities.

The joint team, made up of 30 policemen and 150 soldiers, sprang a surprise attack on the illegal fuel dealers culminating in their arrest and seizure of dozens of drums and various sizes of plastic gallons filled with either diesel or petrol, as well as a number of fuel pumping machines, two pump-action rifles, arrows and gunpowder.

The exercise, which was conducted in three main areas- Ashiaman, Tema Fishing Harbour and around the Tema Oil Refinery, was coordinated from the First Battalion of Infantry (1BN) of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) at Michel Camp near Tema.

At the Ashiaman Timber Market area, a walled premises belonging to a tanker service operator, who was not around, the team discovered two tankers and tanks filled with fuel.

A further search in the yard produced the two weapons as well as a substantial amount of money.

There were six persons on the premises at the time of the operation.

One worker of the company who was quizzed by the police alleged that fuel that was meant for some filling stations were diverted there and sold to taxi drivers and some illegal dealers for less than the ex-pump price.

At another walled premises around the same area (Ashiaman Timber market area) one of the dealers spotted the team approaching and alerted his colleagues who were busily pumping fuel from a stationery tank into a tanker. They all took to their heels leaving behind two fuel pumps and the tanker with registration number GR 9215 F. The tanker was registered with the Southern Sector of the Tanker Owners Union.

Also at another tanker service yard near the Ashiaman roundabout belonging to one Mr Edmund Nartey, the team arrested some persons who were transferring diesel from a long-haul tanker with registration number AS 1547 P into another tanker with registration number GR 670 F.

When a team of journalist got to two exercise areas around the Tema Oil Refinery, the team had seized a quantity of fuel and containers but the dealers escaped arrest.

Lieutenant Colonel Mathew Dakurah, Commanding Officer of the 1BN and operations officer for the exercise told newsmen that the objective was to clamp down on the illegal fuel dealers whose nefarious activities were sabotaging the economy.

He said the exercise was successful and would send smoke signals to others who were into that line of business, thus minimizing the loss of revenue to government from taxes paid on the sale of fuel.

Lt. Col. Dakurah said the owners of the seized items would be found and handed over to the police for prosecution.