FG Approves Ist Quarter Fuel Imports

The Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria yesterday said the queues in some filling stations in some states would soon disappear as the Federal Government had approved the importation of petroleum products.
The Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Obafemi Olawore, who confirmed the approval in a text message in Lagos, said the approved allocation was for the first quarter of the year.
According to Olawore: “The First Quarter allocation is out now. Motorists should calm down and stop panic buying.
“Now that the importation approval had been signed, Nigerians should expect prompt and effective distribution of petroleum products in all filling stations across the country.”
It would be recalled that fuel scarcity had hit some states last week, including Lagos State.
Meanwhile, some stakeholders in the oil and gas industry had tasked the new Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) boss to fight corruption.
Following the sack of the former Executive Secretary of the agency, Reginald Stanley, by the Presidency, the new boss, Farouk Ahmed, was advised to fight corruption rocking the agency.
Chairman of the Lagos chapter of the Petroleum and Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Folorunsho Oginni, said: “We know Ahmed is a product of the  Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and he understands the sector very well.
“It is quite unfortunate that he is coming when the PPPRA is critically challenged, due to non-release of first quarter allocation to marketers.
“The sector he is working in is very critical to the plight of the masses and he has to be focused and must deliver his duty diligently.”
Mike Osatuyi, the National Secretary of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, lauded the former PPPRA boss’s effort in sanitising the agency, and urged the new executive secretary to uphold transparency and objectivity to move the agency forward.
Osatuyi said: “It is a known fact that Ahmed is no nonsense man and I am sure he is going to deliver.
“I remembered his tenure at the PPMC as a straight forward person and don’t abhor corruption.
“But it depends on the forces at the PPPRA.”
President Goodluck Jonathan on February 18 approved the appointment of Ahmed as Executive Secretary of the PPPRA with immediate effect.
Ahmed will take over from Stanley, who is retiring after 35 years in service.
The incoming scribe, who hails from Sokoto State, is the current Managing Director of Nidas Marine Limited, a subsidiary of the NNPC.
Ahmed had also served as executive director (Commercial), Pipelines and Products Marketing Company Limited.

L-R:Rivers State Commissioner for Works, Mr Victor Giadom, Mrs Comfort Nwideeduh, Mrs Bariyaah Abe, Sen. Magnus Abe and Gbenemene Bangha 11 of Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State, King Suanu Baridam, during the thanksgiving/ graduation service of Mrs Abe at Chapel of the Annunciation Catholic Chaplaincy, University of Port Harcourt, yesterday