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Fuel Scarcity: Marketers Say Petrol Can No Longer Be Sold At N145/Litre

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JUST IN: Buhari Deceives Nigerians, Increases Petrol Price Again

-Marketers demand for payment of outstanding subsidy claims from the federal government.

-They also blamed NNPC’s decision to be solely importing fuel for the scarcity which enveloped the nation during the festivities. 

Fuel scarcity may linger as oil marketers kick against N145/litre

Fresh indications have emerged suggesting the current fuel scarcity been experienced in the country may last longer than expected by many.

This follows the end to a meeting involving the Federal Government, Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Department of Petroleum Resources, Major Marketers Association of Nigeria, MOMAN, and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN.

The marketers accused the inability of NNPC to single handedly meet the fuel need of Nigerians as well as the removal of subsidy for the shortage been experienced.

The details were made known by Chairman of Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, DAPPMA, Dapo Abiodun who briefed State House correspondents at the end of a meeting summoned by  Chief of Staff to the President, Abba Kyari to address the challenges of fuel scarcity been experienced in the country.

He said: “Today’s meeting was called at the instance of the Chief of Staff to the President and it was to find out exactly what happened, where we had the problems we had in December with the supply of petrol and how Nigerians were made to go through the pains and suffering.

“He wanted to know the truth and to ensure that going forward, this problem will be solved once and for all. And that is why you saw that we sat in here from 2pm and the meeting just finished after three and half hours. “A lot of issues were raised and a committee was constituted that will be meeting tomorrow (today) under the chairmanship of the Minister of State, Petroleum to further ensure that these problems do not reoccur.

“From our point of view as marketers, we made our submission known to government and we emphasized the fact that this was not a marketer-related problem. There was no hoarding on the part of any marketer. “Marketers are your brothers, they are Nigerian citizens, they are businessmen, no marketer makes money from hoarding petroleum products, our business is to take petrol and sell.

“We explained that the problem that you saw is not willful on the part of anyone either NNPC or marketers. The situation from our point of view is that from January to December, the price of crude remained relatively stable. Following the hurricane Katrina in the month of September, October, crude prices went up and marketers lost the ability to import and sell at N145 per litre.

“In the past, marketers bring in about 60% while NNPC brings about 35 to 40 per cent. But by the month of October, marketers completely stopped importing because there was no more subsidy, so we can’t sell for profit and we have to stop importing. The burden of importing 100% now fell on NNPC.

“You can imagine a situation where NNPC was importing in part and marketers were importing in part and then suddenly NNPC begins to import 100%. “NNPC is suddenly finding itself importing what they probably didn’t expect in terms of volume and the fact that Nigerians are consuming more volume that they will normally consume in earlier months.

“Coupled with the fact that the countries that are surrounding us as a nation are all selling fuel at more than $1 per litre. $1 today is about N360. If you go to Cotonou, Ghana, Niger so it’s not unlikely that some of our petrol is finding itself across the border to these countries.

“All these are issues we believe amounted to what we saw in December but thankfully NNPC rose to the occasion, they stepped up import, stepped up supplies. That situation has since normalized.

“Today’s meeting is to ensure that this does not happen again and this we are going to continue tomorrow in the committee that was set up under the chairmanship of the Minister of State for Petroleum to ensure that we find a long-lasting and enduring solution to this problem so that Nigerians will not have to go through this borrowing situation again.”

Reports obtained by Naija News further disclosed marketers at the meeting also demanded the federal government pay up the N800billion debt been owed its members.

 



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