Fuel Scarcity Looms As IPMAN Threatens Showdown 5 Days To Ramadan
THECONSCIENCE NG reports that The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has threatened to shut down operations if the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) failed to pay an outstanding N100 billion bridging claims.
The Gombe Depot Chairman of IPMAN, Alhaji Abdul Ibrahim, made the position known at a press conference in Abuja, yesterday.
“One year after our last demand requesting the payment of more than N100 billion owed to our members in bridging claims, the management of the NMDPRA has ignored our demand,” he said.
Ibrahim said that members of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) mentioned the same IPMAN bridging claims as part of their demands before the strike action would be called off. He said that NMDPRA promised to offset the bridging claims within 40.
“Forty days have today become months with no hope of our payment. The nine northern depots comprising Jos, Gusau,, Suleja, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Yola and Maiduguri depots have become completely grounded over this lingering debt.
“This debts being owed to us are monies belonging to marketers and which were deducted from us at the point of payments for products, in order to settle our bridging allowances.
“We have also continued to record deaths of our members, closure of their businesses, retrenchment of staff and the take-over of their business premises by the commercial banks. “These are all arising from this refusal of the NMDPRA to pay us our monies,” he said.
Ibrahim said IPMAN was giving the NMDPRA seven days to make the payment.
“As law-abiding Nigerians, we sincerely believe that we have given the NMDPRA enough time to pay us our monies in bulk and clear the bridging claims.
“But in view of their constant refusal, we have therefore decided to liaise with our sister organisations, the Petroleum Tankers Driver (PTD) and NARTO in order to take collective action in due course.
“As members of IPMAN, it is important to state that we also own sizable numbers of the PTD, and we may be forced to withdraw our tankers from loading petroleum products,” he said.
