The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN), Enugu Depot, has warned that it will be forced to shut down the sale of fuel in Anambra State within the next two weeks over attacks on members.
The association accused Governor Chukwuma Soludo’s administration of overtaxing its members, clamping down on their businesses and arresting them.
IPMAN Chairman, Chinedu Anyaso, who gave the warning on Friday, shortly after he was re-elected to pilot the affairs of the members for a second term of three years, promised that he would continue to work hard to ameliorate the difficulties facing members of the association.
According to him, all efforts to call the attention of the Anambra State Government to the issue have proved abortive and not yielded any fruit.
He regretted that some of the IPMAN members who had businesses in Anambra State were taken to court and jailed or given the option of fines due to their refusal to comply with illegal and over taxation.
Meanwhile, the IPMAN have stated that they could sell premium motor spirit, fuel, below the rate it is being sold in Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited retail stations if they get the product directly from NNPCL.
The National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Abubakar Maigandi, stated this during a recent interview with our correspondent.
The IPMAN president said the major problem facing independent oil marketers was the refusal of the NNPCL to supply the product directly from its depot.
According to Maigandi, the while the NNPCL sells at N557 per litre to private depot owners, independent marketers buy from the third parties at N630/litre.
That, he stated, contributed to why a litre of petrol was being sold around N650 and above by IPMAN members, who he said constituted 80 per cent of the market share.
“Currently, our major challenge is that we are not getting the product directly from the NNPCL. We usually buy through the other parties instead of getting it directly from the NNPCL. This is why we sell at a higher rate more than the NNPCL rate.
“If we are getting it directly through the NNPCL, we can even sell below the NNPCL rate for the masses to enjoy our services. Remember we have 80 per cent retail outlets across the country. If we get fuel from NNPCL, it will reduce the cost of petrol.
“In the private depots currently, we buy petrol at the rate of N630 per litre. When you add transportation cost, you will see that the margin will go a little bit higher; then you have to add profit margin. If you pay through banks, you pay charges,” he explained.
Maigandi disclosed that the association had made its challenges known to the Federal Government.
“We have complained to the authorities what we are going through. They will do something definitely, because of the way the masses are crying. If they give us the product directly, the price is going to be reduced.
“NNPCL stations sell around N580 or below, because they got fuel at N556/litre. We are supposed to get the product from the NNPCL too at N556 or N557, depending on the location. But we go through private depots.
“NNPCL gives those who don’t have filling stations product. We now go to them to buy it; and they can sell it at any rate to us. That is the challenge we are having.
“We are the majority with 80 per cent retail outlets. The remaining 20 per cent is NNPC Retail, Depot and Petroleum Products Association of Nigeria and Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria. Those ones have their stations in the cities; they don’t have filling stations in the villages. We are the people who cover both cities and villages. We are very important in this sector,” Maigandi claimed.
Earlier, the IPMAN had accused the NNPCL of holding on to over N300bn of its members money paid into its account to buy PMS, a claim the NNPCL debunked.
At the moment, NNPCL remains the sole importer of petroleum products into the country.
