Adedapo Adesanya
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has urged the federal government to pay marketers their bridging claims to enable them to begin to lift petroleum products from the depots.
This was disclosed by the Public Relations Officer of the association, Mr Yakubu Suleiman, in Abuja on Tuesday over assertions that the FG owes its members N500 billion as bridging claims also known as transportation claims.
Mr Suleiman also urged the Nigeria National Petroleum Company (NNPC) to convert the special allocation of products meant for cargo to IPMAN in order to quickly address the current shortage of fuel in the country.
“We are calling on the Nigeria downstream and mainstream regulatory authorities to try and pay our marketers their bridging claims as from today.
“This is important so that as soon as we get the payment, we can give directives to marketers to start loading their trucks so that they can start transporting petroleum products.
“We are calling on the authorities and the NNPC to quickly allocate a certain cargo of AGO for IPMAN to distribute it to their members to enable them to fuel their trucks for accelerated bridging loading.
“There is no money to buy the product until the federal government pays our claims and assists in allocating a cargo of AGO to us to hasten loading from various loading deports,” Mr Suleiman said.
Most filling stations in Abuja were shut down at the weekend following scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), popularly known as petrol, thereby, resulting in long queues.
The NNPC, however, attributed the sudden appearance of fuel queues in parts of Abuja to low load-outs at depots.
A statement by Mr Garba Muhammad, the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Department of the NNPC on Monday said this usually happened during long public holidays (Sallah celebrations).
Mr Muhammad said another contributing factor to the sudden appearance of queues was the increased fuel purchases which were also common with returning residents of the FCT from the public holidays.
