The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria has explained the reason behind the recent scarcity of petroleum product nationwide.
National Public Relations Officer, IPMAN, Ukadike Chinedu said that the supply of petrol by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation had been distorted.
His words, “We’ve had distortions in petrol supply and it’s like there is not enough product now, but NNPC recently said it had about 40 days’ stock.”
He told PUNCH that although NNPC had insisted that there was no plan to hike petrol price in March, many marketers were still skeptical.
Chinedu said independent marketers were not getting petrol at the approved ex-depot price of N148 per litre from depots, adding that many IPMAN members sourced for the commodity at between N160 and N162 per litre.
“If you buy your product at N162 per litre, will you sell at N162, N165 per litre as approved by government? That is the issue; so tell me, why won’t there be price increase?” he asked.
This comes despite the NNPC insistence that there was no increase in ex-depot price and that the corporation was not making such a plan in March.
