The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has explained why there is fuel scarcity in Lagos and other parts of the country.
In an interview with Channels Television, the Lagos Zonal Chairman of IPMAN, Akin Akinrinade insisted they were not on strike.
Akinrinade noted that the operating environment has become hostile to their businesses.
He also insisted the marketers had not embarked on strike as speculated.
“Members of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria IPMAN have shut down their stations, not because we are striking; we are not on strike,” Akinrinade said.
“Rather, the business environment has been very hostile to us such that we can no longer do business under this condition. For you to load a litre of petrol, you pay in N162 per litre,” he added.
Akinrinade said that it was no longer feasible to sell the product at the recommended price of N165 to a litre, adding that the landing cost of petrol was between N175 to N178 naira to the litre.
“Our members can no longer sell (petrol) at N165 per litre; in fact, there is no reasonable person in this business that can sell below N180 per litre, so it is not as if we are on strike,” he said.
“For you to load a litre of petrol, you will pay N162 per litre. You will have to add the cost of transportation which is between N6 to N8, depending on the distance within Lagos. If it is outside Lagos, it is much more than that.
“So, If you add N8 to N162, you already have N170 and this product is regulated by the government and the government wants us to sell at N165. We have not added the charges at the depots and the running cost at our stations.”
The Lagos satellite depo chairman added that the cost of diesel had surged amid the country’s epileptic electricity supply which has also affected its members’ running cost.
“You know what diesel says now, and you know how epileptic power supply is. We run on generators using diesel at N800 per litre. There is no station in Lagos or anywhere that uses less than 50 litres per day,” he concluded.
Long queues at filling stations have resurfaced in the country’s economic capital, Lagos, on Monday causing traffic and untold hardship to the people. This is coming days after fuel scarcity surfaced in Ibadan, the Oyo state capital.
