By Akinwale Kasali
Few weeks after President Muhammadu Buhari is re-elected as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Nigerians are on the verge of experiencing another pump fuel price increase.
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has urged the Federal Government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation to ensure that private depot owners maintain the official ex-depot price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) at N133.28 per litre.
The Chairman, IPMAN, Ore Depot, Mr Shina Amoo, who said this in an interview with our correspondent in Lagos on Monday, stated that independent marketers might soon start selling beyond N145 per litre if depot owners continued to sell between N136.50 and N137 per litre. Amoo urged the NNPC to prevail on depot owners not to sell beyond the official ex-depot price in order to enable marketers to sell to consumers at N145 per litre.
He said, “Private depot owners have increased the ex-depot price of PMS beyond N133.28 per litre. We bought a litre of PMS between N136.50 and N137 per litre from private depot owners last weekend. This can affect the pump price at which independent marketers will sell the product, and it will certainly be beyond the N145, which is the official pump price.
“We, independent marketers, are law-abiding. We don’t want to sell above the official pump price and that is why we are urging the government to do something about it and make the product abundantly available. They should monitor private depot owners to make sure they don’t sell above the official ex-depot price of N133.28.
“The NNPC is the sole importer and nobody has the right to increase the price but if they continue to sell to us above the official ex-depot price, we will have no option than to increase the pump price above N145 per litre.
The increase in price by private depot owners will eventually push the burden on the marketers and final consumers.” Amoo lauded the Federal Government for the rehabilitation of the Ilorin Depot of the NNPC while urging it to revive the Ore Depot as well in order to reduce the problem of transportation of petroleum products and to create more jobs in the area.
The NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, had in a statement dated March 30 warned private depot owners against increasing the ex-depot price. He said, “The subsisting ex-depot petrol price of N133. 28k per litre was consistent with the Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency’s template and should be adhered to.” Ughamadu stated that NNPC held stock of over one billion litres, adding that imports of 48 vessels of 50 million litres each had been committed for the month of April alone.
