IPMAN Western Zone Laments Hike in Petrol Price by Private Depots

 

IPMAN Western Zone Laments Hike in Petrol Price by Private Depots
Story By Gladys Johnson

Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) on Sunday called on the Federal Government to sanction private depots in Apapa for selling petrol above depots price of N 77.66k to marketers.
The Chairman of Western Zone arm of the association, Alhaji Debo Ahmed, made the appeal in Lagos against the back drop of shutdown of Ejigbo and Mosinmi loading depots due to vandalism.
Ahmed said that this became necessary as majority of the private depots in Apapa were taking undue advantage of the closure of the western loading depots to sell petrol to marketers between N82 and N84 per liter against N77.66k.
“We marketers within the South-West of Lagos, Ibadan, Ore, Ilorin and Ekiti found it extremely difficult to load at Apapa depot due to bottleneck at the depot.
“ It causes us a minimum of 4-days to load product at Apapa private depots which grossly affects our business and investment.
“Private depots also takes undue advantage to sell petrol to marketers at N 82 and N 84 per litre as against depot official price of N 77.66 k,’’ he said.
The chairman appealed to the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to urgently set up a taskforce to supervise the sale of petrol in some private depots that sell above the official pump and depot prices.
He said that some of the private depots who displayed N77.60 on their billboard as ex-depot price, have also have created other accounts into which customers pay additional money, thus increasing the ex-depot price through the back door.
Ahmed, urged government to hastened the repairs of the Atlas Cove system 2B that was vandalised to curb long queues of trucks at the private depots in Apapa.
He said that over 4,000 trucks from the North and Western Zone queue indefinitely at Apapa to load product. .
“Marketers have not been able to load petrol in all NNPC depots in the South West since September due to pipeline vandalism.
“There might be scarcity of products soon because marketers now face serious problems getting the products in Apapa.
“We have over 3,000 trucks within the Western Zone that struggled to load products at Apapa due to non-availability of products at depots in Ejigbo and Mosinmi but we hope government will resolved it soonest,” he said.
Ahmed urged government to expedite action to combat pipelines vandalism in the area to reduce loading challenges in the South West.