The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have disowned a new group: The Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Products (ADITOP).
This followed the new group’s plan to meet in Abuja on Thursday to discuss matters affecting the industry’s downstream oil sector.
ADITOP had fixed an emergency meeting of its Board of Trustees and Patrons for Thursday in Abuja with an agenda to assist truck owners and how to address the challenges facing marketers.
However, NARTO and IPMAN, in separate statements signed by Alhaji Yusuf Lawal Othman and Abubakar Maigandi, decried the motives of the new association and its forces behind, which they declared were inimical to industrial harmony in the downstream oil sector.
In his statement, NARTO President Alhaji Yusuf Othman said ADITOP was a strange association with no direct bearing and relationship with transporters of petroleum products in the county.
He said: “ Our attention has been drawn to the new association, which has fixed a meeting of its members for Abuja, yesterday.
“We have observed that part of the agenda of their meeting was to discuss the interest and welfare of truck owners and their drivers.
“We wish to inform the federal government and all the relevant regulatory agencies in the oil industry that ADITOP is unknown.
“NARTO is the only registered association accorded recognition to transport petroleum products, and we have a good working relationship with the Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) and the Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DPPMAND) being the transporters of their products.
“We are the association covering the interest of all owners of tankers. We also have a good working relationship with NUPENG to safeguard the welfare of tanker drivers. “
In a separate statement, IPMAN president Abubakar Maigandi also raised the alarm about the intentions of the individuals behind ADITOP.
“We are the major suppliers of petroleum products to all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. We do not have any problem with any of the other stakeholders in the industry, including NUPENG and NARTO. We are in harmony with all the other stakeholders, and we do not subscribe to any activity that will disrupt the supply of petroleum products,” he said.
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