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| NNPC Towers, Abuja |
The fuel crisis that
enveloped the country have refused to disappear, according to the Independent
Marketers of Nigeria (IPMAN) Friday, because depot owners sell the
Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) above the official pump price of ₦77 per litre.
The
Nation report continues:
But
the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) Friday challenged the fuel
marketers to present evidence of buying over the price from depots.
Assistant
Director, Operation Abuja zonal office, Mr. Ahmed Alaku, spoke with
journalists after inspecting the sale of products at A.A. Rano in Mararaba,
Mararaba 2 Total, AYM Shafa Ltd Mararaba in Nassarawa State and the Zone 1 Total
filling station, Wuse, zone 1, Abuja.
Asked
to respond to the allegation that some marketers bought petrol above pump price
from the depots, which was their reason for selling above pump price, he said:
“If anybody buys the product above the normal price at the depot there should
be evidence.
“Once
you don’t have evidence and nobody has come to say that they have been selling
the fuel at the depot above pump price so in that situation once we come to any
filling station it has to sell at the company price.
Continuing,
he said, “you know we DPR are purely regulators and of course we ensure that
whoever that has products in his filling station has to sell at government
price.
But
the Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of
Nigeria (IPMAN), Alhaji Abubakar Dankingari, who spoke with The Nation at
Abuja, insisted that the marketers have been presenting evidence of
over-payment to both the DPR and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation
(NNPC).
He
said that: “we have been carrying a lot of receipts and so many evidences
to them. They (NNPC and DPR are all aware. It is no secret even you if you call
the lines of any private depot they will tell you the price.”
The
Vice President also alleged that the corporation was only selling fuel to its
retail outlets and major marketers that in turn sell to independent marketers
above pump price at right there at the depots.
His
words: “They are not loading the independent marketers so the major marketers
and NNPC retail outlets they are selling their products at the terminal.
Like in Lagos where they are loading most of them sell their products there.
Integrated, Total sell ₦110 per litre when they finish loading there at the same
terminal.”
Meanwhile,
Alaku noted that the DPR has never hesitated to sanction any depot that
sold products above pump price, stressing that any culprit must pay ₦2 million
for the violating the price.
The
Assistant Director said that “DPR is all over the country. We have our staff in
all the depots: Calabar and everywhere. And any of the depots we find them
selling about the pump price that depot will be sanctioned and it has to pay ₦2
million for selling above the pump price.”
He
recalled that in January DPR had in January applied the sanction and penalized
the affected depots.
Also
speaking on the unending fuel crisis in Nigeria, Kachikwu said the Federal
Government is considering deploying information technology in the Premium Motor
Spirit (PMS) supply chain to end the perennial fuel queues witnessed across the
country.
He
disclosed that the Federal Government plans to computerize the supply process
from export of the product down to the sale of the product to motorists.
According
to him, computerization is one of the key initiatives that are being considered
in tackling the fuel shortages, especially as it would enable the tracking of
products discharged from oil vessels and tankers to depots; then what was
loaded from the depots by trucks.
He added that it would also
help track what the trucks deliver to petrol stations and what was purchased by
motorists.
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