The Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has continued to withhold its N15 billion following the full deregulation of petrol pricing and the oil corporation’s withdrawal as the sole off-taker of petrol from the Dangote Refinery.
The national president of the association, Mr Abubakar Garima, revealed this in a television interview.
He demanded for a refund of N15 billion from the NNPC, saying the company asked the marketers to buy petrol from its depot at N1, 010 per litre in Lagos State.
He stated that the price peg is significantly higher than what the oil company paid to purchase the product from the Dangote Refinery.
He disclosed that the NNPC paid between N800 and N900 per litre at the refinery but wanted the marketers to sell it at N1, 010 per litre in Lagos, N1, 045 in Calabar, N1, 050 in Port Harcourt, and N1, 040 in Warri.
Recall that NNPC’s retail outlets had on Wednesday, October 9, raised the price of petrol to N1,030 from N897/litre in Abuja, and in Lagos, it was hiked to N998/litre from N868/litre.
“Dangote is selling to them around N800 to N900 and we are asking that it should be sold at that same price. We can decide to sell at a lower price of N1, 020 or N1, 010.
“We also refused to buy it because they bought it at a cheaper price from Dangote but want to sell it more expensive than the amount they currently sell at their stations. This is a great challenge because this will mean our price will be higher, and it also means they would have a profit of over N100 per litre.
“Marketers want to be fully engaged in the business of petrol and its components. The NNPCL has been the one bringing in the product and loading and has an off-take in Dangote Refinery.
“We are now being allowed to import and there is no challenge on that issue. What we are after is to get the product directly from Dangote and not through NNPCL.
“Roughly, the amount we have paid is almost N15 billion. Our money has been with the NNPCL for nearly three months, and they have yet to provide the product we paid for.
“Now, they are asking us to pay the difference. It is unacceptable for NNPC to ask us to add more money after withholding our payments for months without supplying the product,” he said.
He added: “As independent marketers, we cannot load. Since they made this increment, we have been unable to load a single truck because we have to pay cash before we load the products and the cash down is already with NNPC.
“NNPC refused to load us. They told us to complete the difference and that is not a small thing because there are some formalities we have to follow before we do that.”
He, therefore, on the NNPC to either sell the petrol at the same rate it receives from Dangote Refinery or refund the money so that the IPMAN members could source the product directly from the refinery.
“When they made this increment, they told us to add money and buy above what Dangote is selling products to them.
“That is the reason why we told them to return our monies to our banks. We can go directly to Dangote Refinery and buy, if that’s the case,” Garima said.
Meanwhile, the spokesman for IPMAN, Mr Chinedu Ukadike, said the association may be forced to take action if the challenge between IPMAN and NNPC was not resolved immediately.
He said the national oil company had not reached out to IPMAN to resolve the matter
“No changes or feedback at all. NNPC hasn’t responded to us. They haven’t returned our money. We are still observing what the situation would turn to since they haven’t reached out to us, or probably we would have to withdraw our services if the issue is not resolved,” he said.
However, he said IPMAN had made some progress in its negotiation to load petrol directly from the Dangote Refinery.
Besides, he said the marketers would sell at a lower rate of N970/litre if allowed to purchase products directly from the refinery.
“Any moment from now, Dangote will invite us, from the fillers we have received. If we start buying from Dangote at its current price, we will sell at N970, lower than the price of NNPC.
Dangote sold to NNPCL at N898/litre. But they are asking us to buy from them at their pump price. Can you imagine this kind of slavery? We continue to talk about price disparity every day and it’s there for all Nigerians to see,” Ukadike declared.
