Fuel scarcity looms as marketers give Fed Govt seven days to pay claims

Independent oil marketing and depot companies have given the Federal Government seven days ultimatum to pay their outstanding subsidy claims put at N200 billion.

The oil marketing companies, depot and jetty owners under the aegis of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), and Jetties and Petroleum Tank Farms Owners of Nigeria (JEPTFON) have warned the Federal Government to pay their members all outstanding subsidy claims or the country will face severe fuel scarcity.

Already, there was fuel scarcity in Abuja yesterday.

Some filling stations including Conoil at Central Area, opposite NNPC Towers witnessed long queues of vehicles.

The Executive Secretary of JEPTFON, Enoch Kanawa told our a source that if after the expiration of the seven days notice, there is no substantial result from the government, members of the four organisations would shut down their depots and jetties across the country.

He said it doesn’t make sense doing business at a loss and that business is currently ‘so bad’ that some member companies are contemplating reducing their workforce. Kanawa said interest on loans from banks continue to rise, payment of staff is becoming very challenging as well as maintenance of the depots, hence the need to close shop.

He said: “We are all planning to retrench because how do you maintain them. You cannot continue to borrow to pay salaries. We cannot operate when our debts are not paid. The Federal Government is hiding under some clauses to shy away from its responsibility and the only option left to us is to close shops.”

A statement signed by Obafemi Olawore, Executive Secretary MOMAN, Mike Osatuyi, National Secretary IPMAN, Ikem Ohia, Secretary DAPPMA and Enoch Kanawa, Executive Secretary JEPTFON, said the associations control 90 per cent of functional facilities and market share of the downstream sector of the petroleum industry.

They explained that their members own over 25,000 filling stations, have tank farms and storage facilities with about 2.5 billion litres and with dealers in excess of 25,000 and employ about 300,000 station attendants and over 100,000 drivers and mates. They also said there are about 100,000 direct staff and several millions of indirect staff such as contractors and peddlers.

The oil marketers warned the government and the general public of the impending fuel crisis that would follow shut down of their operation should the Ministry of Finance fail to reimburse them their subsidy claims since January, adding that interest rate has risen to a minimum of 22 percent while interest charge in naira stands at N3.7 billion per month.

The associations said: “Our member companies are under the threat of being driven into extinction due to the non payment of the huge sums of legitimate money due to them that have been verified under the subsidy scheme. It is important to stress that our members financed the importation on behalf of the Federal Government with loans borrowed from Nigerian banks at ridiculous interest rates which are presently due. Further delays will result in additional charges that may completely erode our slim margins allowed under the scheme.

“We humbly call the attention of the Federal Government to the above and strongly appeal that all our outstanding payments be made immediately. We wish to reiterate our support for government efforts towards sanitising the PSF scheme but take exception to a selective payment process where majority are deemed guilty as a result of an investigation that has lasted seven months.”