On Wednesday, some petrol stations sold petrol for more than N175 per litre than the government-approved price of N165 per litre because fuel marketers said they would go on strike starting the following week if the government didn’t pay them (marketers).
According to reports, some stores in Lagos that sold the product last week for N169/litre had to modify their pumps on Wednesday because they were dispensing PMS to fuel tanker drivers at N175/litre.
Additionally, motorist lines at fuel stations, which had been present in Abuja and the surrounding area since February of this year, started to appear again in several areas of Lagos on Wednesday.
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Due to a shortage of goods to sell to consumers, several filling stations, especially those run by members of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, were forced to close.
In light of these worries, oil marketers operating under the auspices of Abuja-Suleja IPMAN announced on Wednesday that their planned strike would take place the following week if the government doesn’t significantly resolve the bridging claims for the transportation of gasoline that marketers are owed.
Last week, oil marketers cautioned that if the Federal Government doesn’t pay the 12 months’ worth of bridging claims owed to operators in the downstream oil sector, Nigeria will soon experience “the mother of all fuel scarcity.”
Additionally, they have denied receiving N74 billion in bridging payments from the Federal Government for the transportation of petroleum products.
The Federal Government announced last week that it had paid N74 billion in bridging claims to oil marketers for the transportation of petroleum products across the nation in just seven months. This was done through the Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority.
However, Mohammed Shuaibu, the Abuja-Suleja IPMAN’s Secretary, who oversees the region that includes Abuja, Kogi, Niger, and portions of Nasarawa and Kaduna, said on Wednesday that while some members had acknowledged receiving their money, a large number of others had not.
Shuaibu noted;
Few of our members have confirmed receiving alerts, but the majority have not been paid and so the decision to embark on the mother of all strike still stands, except we get our payments.
Many independent marketers are closing shop and because of these debts. We cannot continue to fold our hands. We are sorry about the hardship, but the government has to pay us, otherwise we will withdraw our services.
Reacting to the concerns, the spokesperson, NMDPRA, Kimchi Apollo, revealed that the petrol price had not changed from the approved N165/litre price, as he also stated that efforts were on to settle to bridging claims being owed the marketers.
