Kaduna Chapter of the Independent Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, has alleged that a cabal of corrupt workers are heading the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and its affiliate, Petroleum Product Marketing Company, PPMC, which has President Muhammadu Buhari, as the supervising Minister.
An ex-official of IPMAN, Bako Abdullahi Yelwa, on Thursday blamed the alleged cabal for the continuous fuel scarcity across the country.
The Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu is equally being blamed for his failure to tackle corruption in Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC.
The marketers, who said the extortions and other sharp practices at the PPMC/NNPC seemed to be defying all interventions by successive administrations in Nigeria , expressed worry over the new cabal at the corporation who specialise in extorting money from IPMAN/ AMFSON members before issuing allocation of petroleum products.
Yelwa alleged that kerosene allocations the Minister of State for Petroleum, Ibe Kachikwu promised IPMAN members is yet to be received as it has allegedly been diverted to the Minister’s “relations, friends and cronies.”
He said, “I challenge anybody to ask any marketer if they have gotten allocations,”
Yelwa said the body has discovered that Buhari’s effort to curb corruption in the corporation were not yielding the desired result, adding that Staff of PPMC/NNPC, who have devised new ways of extorting money from petroleum products marketers should be probed.
“PPMC staff are frustrating Independent Marketers. Why will they ask for a percentage of our profit before giving us allocation? And when we refuse, they frustrate the process of getting our allocation. They only give product allocation to marketers that have given them a share of their profit upfront.
“For example, an Independent marketer gets an average of two allocations of Petrol (PMS) monthly and the profit from each truck is 80 thousand Naira. How can 160 thousand naira pay all my staff, service and maintain the stations and still keep me in business?
“There’s nothing to carry home about Kachikwus’ 6 months in office, his only achievements are confusion and contemplating the award of contacts for building of new empty PPMC/NNPC Mega filling stations with the aim of exterminating the existing Indigenous Independent Marketers despite their huge contributions towards the growth and development of the Nation.
“With the present crash of crude oil price globally to its worst level of below $35 per barrel, Kachikwu should concentrate on constructing new simple modular Refineries & hasten to reactive the existing ones so that our local production can rise to cope with the nation’s petroleum products demands or even beyond. This will create more employments opportunities for many Nigerians in addition to boosting the nation’s economy.
“We are forced to believe that Kachikwu is out to destabilise the Indigenous Independent Petroleum Marketers in Nigeria and cover his masters looting and cheating to Nigerians,” Yelwa said.
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