Amid a fresh scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit known as petrol in major cities like Lagos and Abuja, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has decried the “unsustainable” price the essential product is sold by private depot owners.
Speaking on Thursday on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, the Deputy National President of IPMAN, Zarama Mustapha, revealed that the private depots get petrol at the approved price of N148/litre from the sole importer of the commodity, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited. He however noted that they sell it for as high as N195 to N210 to independent marketers, which is not sustainable.
“It is more of the issue of the private depots collecting the products at the approved price and not selling to the independent marketers at the price approved by the mainstream, downstream regulatory authority.
“The agreed price as at now, NNPC sells to independent marketers at N148/litre but we don’t get the product at that rate, we get the product as high as N195 to N210 from the depot owners which is not really sustainable.
“You cannot get a product at N195 to N200 and expect to sell it at N175,” he noted.
Mustapha lamented that most Lagos depots are in a chaotic situation and marketers spend three days to load refined petrol that they are not supposed to spend more than three hours to lift.
Mustafa urged the NNPC to engage depot owners to sell the product to marketers at the recommended price, adding that the common man is at the receiving end.