NNPCL Suspends Fuel Sales To Independent Marketers

The sale of Premium Motor Spirit – popularly called petrol – has reportedly been suspended to independent marketers.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation reportedly suspended the sale after it hiked the product’s price on Tuesday.

This is even as three vessels berthed at the Apapa, Lagos jetty on Wednesday to discharge imported petrol.

According to a report by Punch, the price hike sparked a protest in Delta State as commercial tricycle operators, also known as ‘Keke’ riders, took to the streets of Warri and Effurun metropolis to resist the price hike.

Also, commuters across the country were either stranded or trekked long distances on Wednesday as fuel queues worsened amid scarcity of the product.

Few commercial motorists came out for business, with most of them lamenting the agonising hike in fuel, barely a month after the hardship protest rocked the nation.

Osun Defender reported on Wednesday that filling stations in Osogbo and Ile-Ife sold fuel for between N1,000 and N1,050.

The National Vice President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola, told The PUNCH that the NNPC stopped selling fuel to independent marketers on Tuesday when it raised the price of a litre of PMS to N855 and above across its retail outlets nationwide.

Independent marketers sold the product for as much as N1,200 and N1,300/litre in some states following the upward review of prices by the NNPC.

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Fashola wondered why the national oil firm would suspend the sale of petrol to the marketers take without any official communication, even when the marketers had paid for the product over two months ago.

Asked if it was true that many of the independent marketers did not go to the depot to lift fuel, Fashola responded, “What are they going there to do? They have stopped our loading. All the tickets we have in the kitties of NNPC, they are not treating them; everything has been suspended.”

When our correspondent inquired to know if the suspension was done despite having paid for the product ordered, he replied, “Yes, our tickets were suspended for loading. They have not been attending to us since yesterday (Tuesday), and there is no official communication yet.

“It is a very bad situation for somebody who has paid for the product, maybe like two to three months ago, and all of a sudden, you stopped loading, maybe because you want to change the price. And it’s not the fault of that customer, because it is supposed to be cash-and-carry. So, I think the NNPC should look at that situation critically.”