The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) of Private Depot Operations (PDO) has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to save its members from the extortion of the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, (NNPCL), which is capable of frustrating them out of business.
Addressing the press in Lagos, the secretary of IPMAN, Mr Folalu Ebenezer, in company other members of the executive of the association explained that the association support removal of fuel subsidy but NNPCL has denied the IPMAN members to load fuel they paid for before the removal of fuel subsidy,and that those fuel paid for has been incorporated into subsidy paid by the federal government, before the subsidy removal.
Ebenezer said the Independent marketers have over 4,500 tickets of oil which had been paid for and has not been lifted.
He explained that some of the tickets were paid for over nine months ago and each ticket takes care of 35,000 to 45,000 liters of 35,000 to 45,000 liters of fuel.
IPMAN noted that NNPCL now requires each of its member to pay additional N13,702,000 on each ticket before the fuel can be lifted, it wondered where did NNPCL expect them to get such amount of money.
Ebenezer added that in January, its members were told to pay additional N1,072,000 per ticket, which they complied with still they could not load.
IPMAN said the product they paid for is the one NNPCL is lifting, since they load on credit, while they pay in advance.”
Members of IPMAN are always required to pay ahead of products supply by the NNPCL via Authority To Pay (ATP) generated from the NNPCL portal for product loading at designated Private Depot (PDO).
“We discovered that months after the payment, through the portal for which tickets are generated for our members to load products, we have not been able to load the products.
“Some of our members have tickets up to nine months before the fuel subsidy removal by the federal government, but they have not been able to load products paid for even till now.”
The association said, “we discovered that the products that should have been loaded by our members have been loaded out to Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), major markers like Mobil, Coinoil, AP and DAPMAN who are owners of tank farm where the products are stored.
“We want Nigerians to see the biased behaviour of NNPCL to IPMAN members over the years and we demand a stop to this.” The statement reads.
Ebenezer explained that, because of this development it is difficult to get fuel in any petroleum station owned by Independent Marketers.
