Northern Fuel Marketers Threaten To Down Tools Over Unpaid Claims

Chairman of Northern Independent Petroleum Marketers Forum, Musa Yahaya Maikifi has said the inability of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to settle his members’ outstanding claim is causing them untold hardship.

He said unless NMDPRA take cogent measures towards resolving their grievances, the association would stop rendering its services forthwith to the public.

Maikifi made this known during an interaction with journalists in Kano.

He was reacting to the claims by the NMDPRA and its executive officer, Farouk Ahmad, saying that they have paid marketers the sum of N74 billion within the past seven months, out of which the northern marketers received N42 billion of their bridging claims.

Maikifi called on the authorities involved to settle their unpaid claims from now to the end of this Month, July 2022, or else they will down tools, as many of them are out of capital to transport petroleum to the northern parts of the country.

“The claim that Mr Farouk Ahmad made on the 29th of last month that he has been paying independent petroleum marketers their bridging claims up to the amount of 42 billion is  not true.  claiming that he paid some selected marketers huge amount of money.

“Our general marketers comprising nine depots under my leadership; Kano, Kaduna, Gusau, Suleja, Minna, Maiduguri, Gombe, Yola and, Jos, none of us was given a dime.

“All the money we are using to lift the PMS are now with him, so, in the next few months, we won’t be able to buy the little product people are seeing now. We can’t even afford to buy it because all the money is now under his custody.

“We have given him up to the end of this month, if he refused to pay us our money, we are going to take an action that will not be good for him, the north and Nigeria at large.”

It could be recalled that the NMDPRA had in statement countered allegations made by Independent Petroleum Marketers Association Nigeria (IPMAN Suleja branch) on product scarcity as a result of non-payment of bridging claims.