Fuel Scarcity: IPMAN Threatens Sanction On Members …As PPPRA Assures On Product Supply

L-R: President, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, Minister of State for Works, Amb. Bashir Yuguda and Vice President Namadi Sambo, at the 20th Nigerian Economic Summit in Abuja, recently.

Following the recurring petrol scarcity in Lagos and its environs, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has vowed to penalise marketers indulging in fuel hoarding in its Western zone.
The IPMAN Chairman of the zone, Mr Olumide Ogunmade, said this in an interview with yesterday in Lagos.
Ogunmade said that a joint task force by IPMAN and the NNPC had been set up to monitor fuel retailing in the zone, to ensure that marketers were not hoarding the product.
He, however, lauded the efforts of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) toward ensuring equitable distribution of petrol across the nocks and crannies of the country.
“We will not hesitate to sanction any erring marketer caught hoarding the product.
“A joint task force between NNPC and IPMAN had been set up to monitor filling stations and sanction them accordingly,” he said.
Ogunmade said the efforts of the NNPC to address fuel scarcity in the western parts of the country had received a boost with the loading of 197 trucks recently.
“I want to confirm to Nigerians and marketers that with the level of petrol injected into the western zone by NNPC, there is no cause for panic buying and hoarding,” the chairman said.
Ogunmade said that the volume of petrol pumped into in the market was part of efforts aimed at restoring normalcy to the fuel scarcity situation in the western parts of the country.
He insisted that petroleum products supplied to the zone were enough to address fuel challenges in the zone.
Ogunmade lauded the programmes of the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company (PPMC), a subsidiary of the NNPC, saying that without those programmes, the sanity in the downstream oil sector would not have been possible.
He said the Managing Director of the PPMC, Prince Haruna Momoh, had initiated different types of programmes, which allowed marketers to receive, distribute and market petroleum products with ease.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary, Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency, (PPPRA), Mr Ahmed Farouk, has urged Nigerians to stop panic buying of petrol.
He announced that more than nine vessels are currently discharging the product across the country.
Farouk, who made this known yesterday in Abuja, when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), said that about 200million litres of the product would soon be released into the market.
He, therefore, urged Nigerians to remain calm adding that there was adequate supply of petroleum product at depots across the country.
“As it is today, from our report, we have over nine vessels currently engaged in discharging products in various depots across the country; from Calabar to Oghara.
“We have 200million litres being discharged by various vessels currently as at today.
“So, there is no need for any panic because we have the product there. The general public should be calm and go about their normal businesses.
He admitted that the delay in the payment of oil marketers was responsible for the initial fuel crisis but explained all outstanding debts had been settled by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation and the Federal Ministry of Finance.
According to him, all pending payments due to oil marketers have been paid as at last week, assuring that Nigerians would not experience scarcity again
A member of the Senate Committee on Petroleum (downstream), Sen. Danjuma Goje, decried the inability of the authorities to resolve the problem surrounding the importation of petroleum products into the country.
The development, he said, brought unnecessary suffering on the people.
“I will advise the Ministry of Finance or the NNPC or whatever agency is responsible for paying the importers, to do their work promptly so that we don’t experience this kind of fuel scarcity again,” he said.
The Chairman of the Committee, Sen. Magnus Abe, said that considering the assurances given by the PPPRA boss, the country had no cause to witness another fuel scarcity.
“So, we can take your word for it that products are available and that there is no need for the public to panic.
“We need to confirm from PPMC exactly what is being done to ensure that these products are effectively distributed across the country,” he said.