The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has distanced itself from what it described as misleading comments from one Tafida Suleiman, who is priming oil marketers to prepare to down tool, saying there were no such plans.
IPMAN’s President, Debo Ahmed, told journalists in Abuja at the weekend that the association had no plan whatsoever to shut down operations as that would mean peppering Nigerians with more hardship and derailing efforts of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in sanitising the petroleum industry.
Ahmed who spoke through IPMAN Secretary, Mr John Kekeocha, also denied the allegation of extortion leveled against the Petroleum Tankers Division (PTD) of the National Union Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG), insisting that no tanker was forced to part with N150,000 or N200,000 before or after loading.
The IPMAN scribe further labeled Suleiman and his group “a gathering of economic saboteurs who want to sabotage the efforts of Mr. President in tackling the issue of petroleum scarcity and over bloated subsidy payments that necessitated its removal.”
He further advised members to go about their businesses and ensure there was availability of petroleum products to efficiently run the economy.
He added: “We implore the FG to issue an importation license to IPMAN to enable us to compete with other actors in a deregulated regime.”
