IPMAN BLAMES NNPC FOR FUEL SCARCITY, SAYS IT’S MANIPULATING DEPOT OWNERS

EJIGBO, Lagos, Nigeria – The Ejigbo Satellite branch of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has said that inability of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to pump petrol to the depots is causing fuel scarcity in Lagos.

Alhaji Balogun Alanamu, Chairman of Ejigbo Satelllite branch, said in Lagos on Wednesday that the NNPC management should be blamed for the ongoing fuel queues across the country.

Alanamu, also the Chairman of IPMAN Lagos Zone, said that the management of NNPC only allocated 20 trucks to marketers on daily basis out of 150 trucks that were being loaded daily.

According to him, all the depots that are serving the South West Nigeria, which include Mosinmi, Ejigbo, Ibadan and Ilorin depots are loading an average of 50 trucks per day as against over 500 trucks per day, usually when there are enough products and all infrastructure are working optimally.

“We really do not know why they are deliberately giving us inadequate supplies and supplying the private depot owners. These people are selling to us above the recommended ex-depot price of N133.38 kobo per litre. NNPC officials are collaborating with the private depot owners to create artificial scarcity.

“They give the products to them; the private depot owners in turn sell to middlemen in bulk, who will later sell to independent marketers at N143 per litre,’’ Alanamu said. According to him, they are hiding behind these marketers to defraud us.

“Meanwhile, they said they gave the products to private depot owners at N117 per litre ex-depot price. We expect they will sell to us at N133.38 per litre but they are not and NNPC is not doing anything about it.

“We raised this issue at a recent seminar two weeks ago where the Group Managing Director of NNPC, Dr Maikanti Baru, was represented. We implored him to investigate if we were lying. We also presented him with evidences, yet, nothing happened,’’ he said. Alanamu said that the NNPC management had invited IPMAN Lagos branch to a meeting at the NNPC Towers on the Dec. 14.

“I have summoned a meeting for today (Wednesday) to deliberate if we should proceed with our strike on the Dec. 11 or not, because many of my members believe that it should be sacrosanct,’’ he said. Alanamu said that Ilorin and Ore depots had been shut for over two years due to pipeline vandalism.

He said that there were less activities in most depots due to inadequate supply of the products by the NNPC. The chairman said that most depots controlled by the Pipelines and Products Marketing Company {PPMC), a subsidiary of the (NNPC), were loading below capacity.

NAN correspondent who monitored the fuel situation in Lagos, reports that while it was evident that there were enough supply for motorists, price discrimination at the private depots was the reason for hoarding and rationing among marketers. A visit to some private depots in Apapa revealed that most marketers were selling between N138 to 143 per litre against the recommended price of N133.38 per litre.

According to a depot survey obtained from a reliable source, some companies are selling at the following ex-depot prices.

They are: Stallionaire-N140 per litre, Sahara-N145.5, Forte Oil -N140, TechnoOil-N142, Shipet-N143, Nipco -N133.28 and all majors, were selling to other marketers at N145 per litre as against N133.38 kobo per litre.

Mr Ndu Ughamadu, Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, said that the Corporation had no plan to increase the prices of petroleum products both at the ex-depot level and pump price ahead of the forthcoming yuletide.

The NNPC, in a statement, informed the public that the ex-depot petrol price of N133.38 per litre and the pump price of N143/N145 per litre had not changed. The Corporation noted that it had enough stock of fuel to ensure seamless supply and distribution of products across the country.