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By Madu Obi
There might be another round of fuel scarcity in some parts of the country following a threat by members of the Eastern zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, to withdraw their services over non payment of their bridging claims.
The IPMAN Eastern Zone comprises of petroleum marketers in Abia, Anambra, Akwa Ibom, Benue, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Kogi and Nasarawa states.
They claimed that their colleagues in the North have since been paid, wondering why those in their zone have not been paid.
A statement by the zonal chairman, Prince Bobby Eberechi -Dick, and zonal secretary, Emmanuel Inimgba lamented that despite correspondences sent to the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Downstream/Midstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority
on this issue, he has refused to release funds or respond to the letters.
Their statement read in part: “The Chief Executive Officer of Nigerian Downstream/Midstream Petroleum Regulatory should, as a matter of urgency pay us our bridging claims, having done so to our colleagues in the North-West and North-East Zones since the subsidy removal regime on the 29th of May 2023 without any Kobo owed them."
“This resolution is further necessitated by the fact that despite correspondences sent to the Chief Executive Officer on this issue, he has refused to release funds, or respond to the letters."
“We are appealing to the Honourable Minister of State for Petroleum for his immediate intervention to not only save our business, but save our members from losing their properties used as collaterals for banks where these monies are tied down with the defunct Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF)."
“We state equivocally that since we cannot fold our hands and see our hard earned properties taken away by the banks if the monies are not released to us as done to the other zones by the end of November 2023, we will have no other option than to withdraw our services from the general public.”
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