The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Monday, stated that the prevailing scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit( PMS) was due to its members’ inability to replenish their stock based on the current cost of loading it from private depots.
Akin Akinrinade, Chairman, IPMAN, Lagos Satellite Depot, on Monday stated that based on current economic realities, PMS should be sold at 180 per litre and not N165 per litre anymore.
According to him, his association members are registered to load with Pipelines Products Marketing Company (PPMC), but since December last year, not a litre has been lifted at the NNPC’s satellite depots in Ejigbo. “We have tickets that have been paid for amounting to over a billion naira as far back as October last year and as we speak, these tickets have not been loaded, meaning that PPMC is holding on to our money.”
“These are funds we are supposed to use to run our businesses. We are businessmen, we take bank loans and now we are paying for money that we are not using,” he explained.
He said most of its members have shut down their stations not because they are on strike, but because the operating environment is no longer sustainable to do business under the current price of PMS.
He said the immediate challenge to its members is the inability to load from NNPC depots, saying that the only option was to depend on private depots along Apapa, Abule Ado and the Lekki Free Trade zones, most of which he said have increased their ex-depot price to a level no longer sustainable for its members to sell at N165 per litre.
The IPMAN boss said as of today, no private depot is selling below N162 per litre. We still need to add the cost of transportation, which is between N6 to N8 depending on the distance within Lagos and if it is outside Lagos, it is more than that and if you add the transportation cost to N162, it is already N170 and do not forget that this product is regulated by the Federal Government.
Other charges, such as the depots and the running cost of the, he said have not been added. He maintained that the members of the association can no longer sell at N165 and in fact, there is no reasonable businessman that can sell below N180 per litre.
Because of the lingering problem of fuel scarcity and the pathetic situation of the nation’s petroleum sector, Northern youth groups have called for the immediate sack of critical stakeholders, including Sylva, for poor handling of the sector and the pains they have inflicted on Nigerians.
The Amalgamation of Arewa Youths Groups (AAYG), an umbrella body of 225 socio-cultural and socio-religious bodies in the North, yesterday, expressed dismay over lingering fuel scarcity in the country and called for an overhaul of the oil sector.
The secretary and spokesman of AAYG, Comrade Abubakar Musa Ardo and Victor Duniya respectively, said “Nigerians are currently battling with the excruciating pains of fuel scarcity, the situation has remained like this for the significant part of 2022, with no end in sight.
“Where you manage to see little of the fuel, it sells between N250 and N300 per litre in broad daylight without fear of government regulatory agencies. This is against the national benchmark and highly subsidised rate of N165.”
National President of NARTO, Yusuf Lawal Othman, told The Guardian that some haulage firms had parked their vehicles over high operating expenses, especially the cost of diesel, stressing that although the government had agreed to review the rate, the directive is still being processed and may take weeks or months.
He asked members of the association to immediately resume operations adding that fuel queues will disappear in a matter of days.
Othman equally urged the public to avoid panic buying, stressing that the association will do everything possible to increase distribution capacity.
While motorists struggle for the product, black marketers have since returned to the nation’s capital, with a litre selling for about N400.
While it is now clear that the Russia-Ukraine war may linger indefinitely as Nigeria has been unable to maintain oil production targets, stakeholders fear that the fuel crisis may go from bad to worse, adding that NNPC may be unable to meet with its Direct Sale, Direct Purchase scheme. The scheme enables the country to swap crude oil for refined products.
In Abuja yesterday, most fuel stations belonging to the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), including Total, Mobil, Eternal and others were shut, while a handful that sold the product dispensed from few pumps.
In Lagos, many filling stations are shut because they claimed they don’t have fuel to sell.
National President of NARTO, Yusuf Lawal Othman, told journalists that some haulage firms had parked their vehicles over high operating expenses, especially the cost of diesel, stressing that although the government had agreed to review the rate, the directive is still being processed and may take weeks or months.
He asked members of the association to immediately resume operations adding that fuel queues will disappear in a matter of days.
Othman equally urged the public to avoid panic buying, stressing that the association will do everything possible to increase distribution capacity.
In a related development, Ayuba Wabba, President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), has criticised the privatisation policy of the Federal Government, especially in the power sector, insisting that Nigerians are being forced to pay for darkness.
Wabba made the claims on Monday at the maiden edition of Nigeria Employers Summit 2022 organised by the Nigeria Employers Consultative Association (NECA) in Abuja.
Wabba, who was represented by the Deputy President of NLC, Najeem Usman Yasin, lamented that the development will continue unless the national infrastructural gaps are addressed.
He said: “The recent slump in the national electricity supply, which is a result of constant failure of our electricity grid indicates that Nigeria still has a long way to go in making power supply available to the citizenry.
“The organised private sector has concluded that the state of public electricity supply as of today, has shown that most productive and residential areas in Nigeria no longer enjoy up to six hours of electricity supply.
“This has confirmed that the recent privatisation of Nigeria’s power sector is a complete failure.
“Nigerians still pay heavily for megawatts of darkness.” NLC, however, urged government to consider a reversal of the privatisation of the power sector and return assets to Nigerians.
In April, while approving a revised budget of N17,319,704,091,019 trillion for the 2022 fiscal year, the National Assembly approved N4 trillion fuel subsidy budget.
Amid heavy borrowing, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had in fact said with fuel subsidy payout averaging N500 billion monthly, Nigeria may spend N6 trillion to subsidise petrol before the end of this year.
Olusola Bello
