By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
As Nigerians continue to groan under the biting scarcity of petroleum products especially Premium Motor Spirits (PMS), the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has blamed the non availability of the essential products squarely on the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPC).
Speaking through the National Operations Controller, Mr. Mike Osatuyi, IPMAN insists that NNPC is responsible for the persistent fuel queues at the filling stations across the country.
Osatuyi who spoke on Arise Television breakfast programme ‘The Morning Show’ monitored in Abuja on Thursday by Prompt News Online, argued that IPMAN is not responsible for the persistent scarcity of petroleum products across the nation and the attendant hike in pump price.
According to him, IPMAN is not to be blamed for the current situation because it distributes what it gets from the NNPC through the petroleum depot owners, adding that the quantity IPMAN members receive from tank farms are what are distributed.
Said he: “IPMAN cannot understand why NNPC kept saying it has a reserve of 1.6 billion litres of products to last 26 days yet the tank farms are dry. There are no products in the tank farms from where IPMAN lifts products. So if trucks cannot load how can products be available at the pumps”.
Speaking further Osatuyi disclosed that NNPC has challenges in moving products, arguing that it is not true that the recent flooding in some parts of the country is responsible for the persistent scarcity of petroleum products.
“The truth is that flood has receded greatly, especially around Kogi axis as trucks are conveying products across Nigeria including Abuja. Let NNPC come out clean, they should accept that they have challenges in moving products across Nigeria”, he stated.
Asked what should be done by the federal government to solve the anomalies in the petroleum products distribution in Nigeria, the IPMAN national officer recommended the breaking of the monopoly of NNPC for the importation of refined petroleum products into Nigeria.
Said he: “NNPC monopoly has to be broken so other importers can bring in refined petroleum products and if that is done then there will be availability of the petrol at the filling stations across Nigeria”.
On the indiscriminate hike in pump prices by independent petroleum products marketers, Osatuyi said marketers sell according to how they bought the products.
” I must confess that our members are buying the products at higher prices and will sell higher than they bought, although we have warned them about over pricing. I mean, our members buy at N180 per litre instead of N175 per litre recommended by the government”.
“Naturally, marketers pass the price to the final consumers, Nigerians. But Union always warn members not to sell above N200 per litre because they can always make gains if they add just a little increase of pump prices”, Prompt News Online quoted Osatuyi as saying.
