Oil Marketers Deny Bribing NNPC Officials

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 låg 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.