The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) of withholding petrol its members paid for more than six months ago.
IPMAN, therefore, wants President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the matter to avert another petrol scarcity in the country.

The association alleged that some of its members have has many has 4,000 outstanding tickets worth N7,740,000 each with the NNPCL.

In a statement read to journalists in Abuja yesterday by its Suleja/Abuja branch Chairman Yahaya Alhassan, IPMAN claimed that the NNPCL used its members’ money to import fuel but had yet to deliver to them after entreaties.

The statement, according to Alhassan, was issued after a caucus meeting of chairmen of depots in Suleja/Abuja, Gusau, Minna and Kaduna.

He told The Nation that the NNPCL supplied some major marketers the product with some concession for their old tickets.

“NNPCL has since given PMS to major marketers with some concessions for old tickets,” he said,

Insisting that IPMAN members should ”enjoy the same concession instead of incurring losses.”

IPMAN which welcomed the removal of fuel subsidy, warned that service delivery would never stabilise if the outstanding product tickets were not settled by the NNPCL.

The NNPCL had last month handed off the monopoly of petrol import and immediately unveiled a new template that raised pump price from N184 to between N448 and 577 per litre in its outlets.

The statement by the association partly reads: “There are more than 4,000 outstanding tickets with the NNPCL and each ticket is worth N7,740,000. “Our fear is that most of our members borrowed from banks to buy the products and the loans are accumulating huge interest. Some of our members are already being harassed by bank officials.

“We, therefore, call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to quickly intervene as any scarcity of the product in the market will push the country into a serious fuel crisis that will never be contained within a short period.”

IPMAN which controls over 70 percent per cent of the retail outlet of the markets in the country, advised that the bridging scheme be retained since it ”is self-funded by marketers.”

It argued that since the Nigerian economy is road-driven, tampering with the bridging scheme would further polarise the country and cause more hardship for the citizens.

The association solicited government’s intervention to ensure the payment of all outstanding bridging claims with the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority without delay.

Efforts by The Nation to speak with the NNPCL Chief Communications Officer, Malam Garba Muhammad on the allegation by IPMAN failed as he neither picked up his calls nor replied to text messages sent to his telephone line.

By John Ofikhenua
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