365NEWS gathered that the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria announced on Tuesday that the 30,000 stations run by IPMAN members nationwide will be closed if the Federal Government does not settle the N200bn debt owed to marketers.
According to IPMAN, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority—a Federal Government agency—has declined to pay the outstanding debt, which has been accumulating since September 2022.
The non-payment of marketers’ bridging claims was revealed in a communiqué released in Abuja by Yahaya Alhassan, the Chairman of the IPMAN Depot Chairmen Forum. In Nigeria, IPMAN is in charge of more than 30,000 filling stations.
Payments made by the government to oil marketers for the conveyance of petroleum products loaded from depots to different states throughout the nation are known as bridging claims.
Alhassan said the consequences of the failure by NMDPRA to pay the N200bn “will be terrible, as every marketer’s outlet across Nigeria, from the North to the South, and from the East to the West, will be shut down.”
He added, “As IPMAN, we have taken every step in the past to salvage this unfortunate and looming situation, which we know will not augur well for Nigerians, but we are presently left with no option than to go all out in the next few days to address this ugly trend in our own way, which will portend great hardship and danger for Nigerians.”
The IPMAN official noted that Heineken Lokpobiri, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), and Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Advisor, had ordered Farouk Ahmed, the Chief Executive of NMDPRA, to pay off the entire debt in 40 days during a stakeholders’ meeting on February 20, 2024.
“However, today we have crossed the 40 day time-lapse given to the NMDPRA to clear the debt, and it is shameful to state that only the paltry sum of N13bn has been paid, thus going the whole length to ignore our plight without remorse and without recourse to the minister’s directive.
“Before now, we had taken the honourable path to continually seek an explanation from the NMDPRA on why it has blatantly refused to offset the remaining debt, but we have ceaselessly met brick walls,” Alhassan stated.
He said IPMAN was extremely distressed and depressed by the laidback attitude of the leadership of NMDPRA towards the survival of its members’ businesses, arising from NMDPRA’s deliberate delay and refusal to offset the debt of over N200bn.
“This has consequently led to the deaths of many of our members and the unfortunate collapse of their businesses. It is also disheartening to note that some of our members have completely shut down their businesses and retrenched their employees as we are no longer able to pay salaries.
“As businessmen and women, our members acquired bank loans to keep their fuel retail outlets running on a daily basis across the nooks and crannies of Nigeria, in order to serve the teeming population of Nigerians.
“However, it is demoralising to know that many of our members have gone bankrupt and have become financially insolvent as a result of their inability to meet their financial obligations to their banks, arising wholly from their inability to get their monies from the NMDPRA,” Alhassan stated.
Consequently, according to the IPMAN official, the banks have taken over the business premises of many of our members.
He said, “NMDPRA have illegally taken our monies and this is the highest level of fraud. Sequel to this, we are appealing to Mr President to please intervene in this quagmire that we have been subjected to by the NMDPRA.
“We repeat, if our demands are not met within the shortest period of time, we have already put our members on standby across the nation, as law-abiding citizens, we are collectively prepared to withdraw our services, close every single outlet, and suspend lifting of products forthwith till our demands are fully met.”
When contacted, the NMDPRA said the payment process was ongoing. “Not everyone is paid at the same time, rather the payment process is an ongoing thing,” a spokesperson for the agency, Seiyefa Osanebi stated.
Meanwhile, commenting on the scarcity of fuel across the country, Alhassan said the problem was because the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited was not supplying enough petrol to dealers.
“It is expedient for us to state that we are more pained by the non-availability of petroleum products across the country, which has given rise to another round of untold hardship for Nigerians.
“We would like to categorically state that the scarcity of PMS is wholly triggered by the NNPC and not by IPMAN or her members. Contrary to claims that IPMAN members are hoarding PMS products, we make bold to say that NNPC is the sole importer of PMS and therefore the sole cause of the present scarcity in Nigeria,” he stated.
Additionally, according to IPMAN, NNPC was supplying gasoline to private depots. These depots raise the price of the commodity to as much as N850 per litre, which frequently results in higher pump prices across the country.
On the other hand, NNPC promised Nigerians that by Wednesday, May 1, 2024, the current fuel shortage and lines would be eliminated. Olufemi Soneye, the organization’s chief communications officer, allegedly said as much on Tuesday in Lagos.
He claimed that the company currently has more than 1.5 billion liters of products available, enough to last for at least 30 days. He attributed the country’s gasoline shortage to logistical issues.
