The national controller, operations of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Michael Segun Osatuyi has assured Nigerians that the lingering fuel scarcity would end in fourteen days.
Osatuyi who made this declaration in the Arise TV on Wednesday, exonerated his association from any blame in the current perennial fuel crisis in the nation, rather passed the bulk on the corridor of the Nigeria Union of Petroleum And Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) .
He attributed the arbitrary hike in pump price of petrol to the recent ten naira (#10) increase in transporting one litre of petrol by NUPENG members to the filling stations.
Osatuyi who insisted that the temptations in engaging in smuggling petrol is high due mainly to the huge difference in price of the product in neighbouring countries. “The price of petrol in neighbouring countries is abysmally high. So, the temptation for tanker drivers to indulge in the criminal act is very slim”.
The IPMAN boss who said that the best way to checkmate smugglers of petrol, is for NUPENG to caution their members against driving trucks across the nation’s borders as IPMAN does not transport fuel.
He disclosed that in no distant time, the fuel situation would abate as the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Limited) has agreed to officially open up more petrol depots that would allow marketers to buy the product at the official price.
Osatuyi also disclosed that bureaucratic bottle neck associated in getting product has compelled marketers to engage in pay on delivery of the petrol product. ” You apply for the product, 14 days after, they are yet to deliver the product. Hence, marketers now insist on payment on delivery .”
It would be recalled that President Mohammedu Buhari raised a 14-man committee to oversee the effective delivery of the product across the nation follow the abysmal performance of the NNPC limited in this regard.
But the IPMAN boss who dismissed the claim by the committee members that Nigeria currently has over 1.6 billion litres of fuel available, said if it was true, fuel would be available everywhere.
He lamented that NUPENG is currently benefitting from the racketeering of petroleum products and advised that tanker drivers must cut down the cost of ferrying one litre of fuel to the filling stations if the pump price of petrol must remain low.
