The National President of Independent Petroluem Marketers Association of
Nigeria (IPMAN),Alhaji Aminu Abdul kadir has described allegations
that its members bribed officials of the Oil ministry as false and
politically motivated.
He also warned against removal of kerosene subsidy as It has the
potential of triggering social unrest in the country even as he defended
the subsidy regime as a necessity until LPG become sufficiently
available across the country.
In a chat with newsmen in Abuja, Abdul kadir said the association
viewed “with serious concern the politically motivated allegation of
bribery against NNPC officials by faceless marketers who claims to be
paying 25 naira per litter on top of the official price without any
proof.
“It is quite intriguing that some mischievous individuals are hell bent
in turning the downstream petroleum industry into a political theatre
without minding the negative impact of such on the Nigerian economy.
It is now obvious that these enemies of peace in the industry having
instigated all manners of public hearing in collusion with their allies
to truncate the supply stability the populace have been enjoying with
the aim of discrediting the efforts of the leadership of the petroleum
industry have now resulted to negative press war”, the IPMAN President
said in a prepared text.
He noted “that IPMAN controls 87% of total retail outlet in the country
with over thirty thousand (30000) retail outlets. As a matter of fact,
if the alleged practice were occurring in the industry as mentioned, the
IPMAN members would have been aware of it.
The fact that IPMAN is not aware of such demonstrates the hollowness of
the allegation as blatantly concerted lies”, he clarified.
According to him, NNPC does not transact with any marketer without bulk
purchase agreement and that NNPC/PPMC have conducted verification
exercise of retail outlet in the country and have since sanctioned some
fake marketers from lifting products across the twenty one (21) PPMC
deports across the country.
“All legitimate marketers lift their products and sell at approved
government price in line with the directive of the Honourable Minister
of Petroleum, Mrs Diezani Alison Madueke which is been implemented by
the GMD NNPC, MD PPMC, and IPMAN President” the association said .
On subsidy removal, the IPMAN leader said those plotting to derail the
Jonathan presidency are the ones behind the push to withdraw kerosene
subsidy which he said would impose further hardship on the poor,
canvassing that “Subsidy should remain until LPG supply is sufficient to
fill the gap.
“Until LPG is widely available, you cannot remove subsidy. If you do, it
will bring social unrest. I strongly advise that subsidy should remain.
I also call on the minister to call Industry operators to order to put
in more efforts into the provision of LPG”, he said .
On allegations that the subsidy is not reaching the poor, the IPMAN
President denied such assertions, explaining that the problem has to do
with High demand versus low supply as the quantity subsidized is not
sufficient to meet the needs of kerosene users.
“About 7 to 10 million liters are supplied but our national consumption
today is about 15 million liters. There is a shortfall in supply, hence
people think the subsidy is not reaching the people. There is subsidy”,
he said.
