Members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) yesterday staged a peaceful protest in Lagos over the exclusion of their members from distribution of petroleum products by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL).
IPMAN members at a peaceful rally staged at their office in Apapa called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the matter in order to save their business
The Secretary of IPMAN/NNPC PDO Forum, Folalu Ebenezer who addressed the press during protest, declared their total support for fuel subsidy removal, but called on the president to beam his search light on various atrocities being committed by the personnel of NNPCL.
Ebenezer said many months after the payment its members made they are yet to get product supply.
“Some of our members have tickets up to nine months before the fuel subsidy removal by the Federal Government but have not been able to load products paid for even till now. Before the latest decision, there had been an increment in January 2023 in which our members were obligated to pay an additional One million and seventy two thousand naira per ticket.
“Even after the payment of this unexpected increment, our members are yet to lift the products as promised. Presently our members have over 4,500 tickets, including 500 Dynamic tickets, yet to drop on NNPCL’s portal.
“However, after this latest announcement of the removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government, NNPCL is now asking IPMAN members who already have tickets for the products, to pay additional N13,702,000 on each ticket to the NNPCL”, he said.
In its reaction the NNPCL Coordinator Private Depots Operation, Lagos, Alhaji Jallo Mohammed, said ‘’The bulk purchase agreement has every detail and condition and provision, which is that whether you make payment for any product, it is not guaranteed that you get that product on the spot, it is subject to the product availability, so when you are doing business with somebody with the agreement you signed on this. If something like this happens, how will you blame such an organisation, but for a detailed enquiry, you can send your enquiry to our corporate affairs commission.’’
