The leadership of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), on Friday, ordered a total closure of all fuel stations across Oyo State until further notice over alleged harassment and intimidation by officers of the IGP Monitoring Squad.
Speaking with journalists at the IPMAN Headquarters in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital, the chairman of the association, Alhaji Bukola Mutiu, linked the ongoing fuel scarcity across the state to the high cost of diesel as well as the inability of Oyo State-based petroleum marketers to load fuel directly from the Ibadan depot.
Mutiu noted that the leadership of the association has been managing the crisis for a very long time before the matter goes beyond control due to an increment in the price of diesel as well as Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol.
He said: “It is so unfortunate that all the depots in South West are not working. We can’t load from the Ibadan depot here. We need to travel to Lagos or the far East to buy from some local marketers who bought the fuel from NNPC.
“Sometimes we buy at the rate of N158-N159 per litre, and lately it has increased. By the time we add transport cost, which is N18 per litre then you will see that there is no way we will sell at the government pump price of N165 and that is the reason why you see some of us selling at N180 per litre. The government should find a way to deregulate the oil sector.
“The government should give us a level playground. We have ordered a total shutdown of all filling stations across the state because some officers who claimed to be from the IGP monitoring squad have been intimidating and harassing our members for non-compliance with government regulation pump prices. As I’m talking to you now, five of our filling stations have been sealed, while some of our members have been arrested.
“We are calling on the government to clear the air on who has the mandate to seal the filling station over any suspected irregularities. We are only aware of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR), which has the mandate to seal any filling station that violates government regulations. But nowadays we have no fewer than six uniform agencies under the Nigeria Police Force coming to claim the mandate of DPR, which is now known as the Nigeria Mainstream and Downstream Authority.
