Ibadan – The Chairman, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Oyo State Chapter, Alhaji Bukola Mutiu, has decried the non-availability of fuel in the state noting that the members are going the extra mile to lift the product from Lagos.
Speaking with newsmen in Ibadan, he said the lifting cost from Lagos which is between #159 and #162, and this, coupled with other expenses has necessitated the increase in the price of fuel from #165 to #180 naira per liter.
‘If you get it at the price of #159 and #162 from Lagos, with other expenses like transportation, that is why you see us selling at #180 per liter. As at today, we can count the number of depots in Lagos that have it, it’s not so available.”
Alhaji Mutiu lamented that marketers can no longer plan their businesses because of the unpredictability of market factors while calling for the removal of subsidy.
‘ Years back, we could plan for our businesses even for up to a year, but now you can’t even plan for a day.’
‘We are not comfortable selling it at the new price because we are also losing customers. If you were buying 50 liters with an amount before, you now buy like 10 liters at the same price. And on our part, if you were trading with one million naira before, you have to trade with like three to five million. Even insurance companies do not want to insure our companies anymore because the risks have increased.’
According to him, the removal of subsidy will give all marketers a level playing ground in investment adding that the members often go as far as Warri to get the product.
He said IPMAN has written a position paper to the federal government suggesting ways out of the current situation, which he said include the resuscitation of the NNPC Ibadan Depot which had been out of use for the last six months.
‘If the government does not resuscitate the NNPC depot in Ibadan, we will not have a headway. If the NNPC here is functional, we will be able to buy and sell at the normal rate’.
‘If they increase the price, we have to increase the price too, we cannot sell lower than #180 per liter with the current price we are buying from Lagos. That is for the Petrol. For diesel, for about two or three weeks now, diesel has been going up daily, as of last week, we sold at 800 per liter in Ibadan but as of today, we can no longer sell at 800 but 850 naira per liter now. And the side effect and the repercussion of this is it will affect companies who depend solely on diesel to power their businesses and you know what that means, the price of everything including foodstuff will increase.’
Alhaji Mutiu appealed to the general public to be patient and understand the fact the marketers are not also finding the situation palatable.
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