IPMAN to NUPENG: Stop your members from smuggling fuel meant for Nigerians to neighbouring countries

*As union ops controller says elements involved must stop causing scarcity, be born again

*Assures queues at filling stations will clear in 2 weeks

*Reveals NNPCL has permitted IPMAN to lift product from own platform

By KEMI KASUMU

As fact-checks confirm claims by Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL) extricating itself from current fuel scarcity and blaming it on activities of smugglers, the statutory petroleum handling organisation has been corroborated by he body of non-major oil marketers that is the Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).

The IPMAN made the corroboration when it indicted elements it called bad eggs with the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), the transporters of petroleum products, for the smuggling of fuel meant for local consumption to neighbouring countries.

According to Mike Osatuyi, the IPMAN National Operations Controller, marketers are putting plans in place to address the country’s ongoing fuel shortage.

But spoke to the conscience and consciousness of NUPENG to tell its members to stop shipping gasoline trucks to nearby nations if the interest of Nigeria and good lives of its citizens matter to them.

“When it comes to all the challenges causing the fuel crisis, you can’t rule out the bad eggs across all strata of the system. But at the same time, it takes everyone to say drop this nonsense and let us be born again,” Osatuyi added.

Speaking on Wednesday February 1, 2023 during an interview programme, Morning Show on Arise TV, Osatuyi assured Nigerians that fuel would be available and queues at the filling stations across the country will clear in two weeks.

This was not without adding that, not only will the Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) commonly known as petrol will be available to all outlets but also, the product will be accessible and reasonably priced.

He revealed that in order to lessen the burden of fuel scarcity and high pump prices on Nigerians, all participants in the sales of petrol to the public users had agreed to sell it at fair rates.

The IPMAN officer said that all parties involved in the downstream petroleum value chain, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, met on Tuesday in effort to resolve the problem.

“Yesterday, there was a meeting in Abuja and the president of IPMAN was there and he gave me feedback on the meeting. So, I can say the NNPC is ready to find a solution to the crisis. They’ve now agreed that they will open more depots for IPMAN to be loading products through their platform at official price and this is what we have been clamouring for, for years.

“From what I gathered now, they are given 14 days to clean up the mess. By the next two weeks, we should be able to buy at a very reasonable price. We must all work in the interest of Nigerians and let Nigerians benefit from this subsidy,” he said.

Osatuyi said that all hands must be on deck to stop the problem of smuggling, which the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority had previously stated was a key contributing factor to the fuel crisis.

The DEFENDER reports that whereas some Nigerians has been blaming the NNPCL for allegedly lying to them there is enough fuel, fact-checks have now laid them blame game to rest as even the lead complainants, IPMAN agrees with NNPCL that there is truly fuel but members of sister union, NUPENG, are involved in sabotaging the distribution process through shipping of the fuel trucks to neighbouring countries.

Whereas the IPMAN hitherto criticised the NNPCL for not allowing its members access the product directly from it at official rates as they had to buy through depots of major markets who have direct access, the independent marketers have usually been fingered in the easy manipulation that deprive the people of benefiting from impact of fuel subsidy as they hoard and create scarcity at will.

With the IPMAN’s latest position on and commitment to all Stakeholders being born from partaking in all the challenges and “nonsense” causing the fuel crisis, the nation’s social system is set to return to normal because, we gathered, it is not possible to blame the war in Ukraine but corruption of local players for the problem of fuel scarcity faced at any time in the country.