The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), on Tuesday, declared that it would shut down the 30,000 stations operated by its members across the country if the Federal Government fails to pay the N200bn that is being owed marketers.
According to The Punch, IPMAN stated that the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, an agency of the Federal Government, had refused to clear the debt, which had continued to accrue since September 2022.
It disclosed this in a communique issued in Abuja by the Chairman of IPMAN Depot Chairmen Forum, Yahaya Alhassan, over the non-payment of marketers’ bridging claims. IPMAN controls over 30,000 filling stations in Nigeria.
Bridging claims are payments made by the government to oil marketers for the transportation of petroleum products loaded from depots to various states across the country.
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 pointed out that at a stakeholders meeting held on February 20, 2024, with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, the Chief Executive of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, was mandated by Lokpobiri to clear the entire debt in 40 days.
“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.