If members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have their way, the Federal Government will no longer pay subsidy on the importation of petrol (Preimium Motor Spirit).
The marketers, through their chairman in the Northwest Zone, in Kano yesterday, pushed for the removal of fuel subsidy.
They also urged the incoming Muhammadu Buhari-administration to immediately scrap the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency (PPPRA) and other agencies that usurp the powers of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC).
The Northwest Zonal Chairman, Alhaji Muhammadu Lawal Danzaki, told reporters that the nationwide fuel shortage will linger, until the sharp practices by members of the Depot Marketers’ Association of Nigeria (DAPMAN) and Major Oil Marketers’ Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) have been dealt with.
According to him, the two legs in the distribution chain of petroleum products have connived to inflate prices in a bid to stampede the Federal Government into paying the fuel subsidy debt before May 29.
Danzaki also blamed the acute scarcity on the fear of MOMAN members and depot owners that the incoming administration may introduce its fuel supply system.
He identified the importation and sale of petroleum products at exorbitant prices to IPMAN and the duplication of NNPC functions by its subsidiaries – PPPRA, Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) and DAPMAN – as major impediments to free fuel flow in the country.
The IPMAN chief admitted that the scarcity and its attendant soaring fuel pump prices have been taking tolls on Nigerians.
Danzaki suggested what he called short and long-term solutions to end the perennial scarcity.
He recommended that the NNPC should be granted the monopoly to import products as the long-term solution and the removal of middleman from products’ distribution as a short-term remedy.
He suggested the building of new refineries by the incoming administration as the enduring solution to scarcity, even as he frowned at the introduction of mega stations in the country by the NNPC.
According to him, the stations have become conduit pipes, claiming that 90 per cent of the stations belong to IPMAN members.
“The remaining 10 per cent owned by NNPC is a far-cry to the solutions to recurring fuel scarcity,” he said.
He, however, advised the president-elect to take the fuel scarcity problem with utmost seriousness and tackle it head-on.
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