Kingsley Braide, Yenagoa
There was pandemonium in Yenagoa the Bayelsa State capital on Friday when two prominent figures in the state led others to allegedly disrupt the operations of a filling stations, MegaBumz oil and gas for reportedly selling their product below the approved pump price.
Business activities were brought to a halt for over two hours at the filling station located along Opolo/Elebele road.
A former lawmaker in the State House of Assembly, Hon. Ndutimi Komonibo and the immediate past Permanent Secretary in the state ministry of education, Mr. Walton Liverpool led the riotous group.
An eyewitness who pleaded anonymity said the men after gaining access into the filling station, ordered some armed men to forcefully shut it down.
The Manager of the filling station Mr. Ayebapreye Thomas said the unidentified gunmen in company of the former lawmaker and a former permanent secretary came to the filling station claiming to be union members.
“They came to the filling station claiming to be members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, (IPMAN).
“The only people I can identify in the group were a former lawmaker Hon. Ndutimi Komonibo and a former Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Mr. Walton Liverpool.
“They said they are here to shut down the filling station for selling below the unions approved pump price, which is alien to me.
“It is alien to me because I have a freedom of association and to the best of my knowledge, I don’t belong to any association likewise this oil and gas company i manage.
“Meanwhile I have informed my lawyer to file a suit against them for disrupting my business for over 2 hours”, he said.
Komonibo and Liverpool declined to speak to newsmen, saying they came to solve some internal crisis which is not for the press to report.
