Some members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) yesterday staged a peaceful protest against an alleged refusal by the police commissioner in Rivers State, Eboka Friday, to obey a judgement of the Supreme Court.
The protesters alleged that a 2018 judgement of the apex court had among other things granted powers to the association to collect levies from petroleum tankers loading from refineries and tanks farms in the country.
They further alleged that instead of the association, the leadership of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) was illegally collecting the levies.
The protesters marched through some major roads in Port Harcourt, the state capital, before arriving at the Rivers State Government House where they handed over a protest letter to security agents for onward transmission to Governor Nyesom Ezenwo Wike.
Secretary of Port Harcourt branch of IPMAN, Ozo Ejike, accused Eboka of refusing to obey a signal from the Inspector -General of Police, Usman Alkali Baba, which allegedly directed him to recognise only the leadership Uchenna Okoronkwo.
Ejike said: “It is no news that IPMAN has been bedeviled with protracted to that ended up with litigations from the Court of first instance to the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court in Abuja between Chief Lawson Obasi and Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo.
“After the tussle, Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo, our national president emerged judgement creditor in all hierarchy of the Court with Chief Lawson Obasi being a gracious loser.”
Meanwhile, the national leadership of IPMAN has dissociated itself from the protest.
The IPMAN national president, Alhaji Debo Ahmed, in a statement made available to newsmen in Port Harcourt yesterday, said promoters of the protest were not real marketers of petroleum products across the state and its environs.
