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Akure residents accuse major marketers, NNPC of supplying fuel to black marketers

By Oluwaseun Akingboye, Akure
23 April 2016   |   4:03 am
Some independent marketers now sell fuel in Akure, the Ondo State capital and its environs at N180 per litre.
Fuel scarcity

Fuel scarcity

Some independent marketers now sell fuel in Akure, the Ondo State capital and its environs at N180 per litre.

The drivers, commuters and those who purchase fuel for domestic use, blamed the scarcity and increase in petrol price on the excesses of some major marketers in the state, who diverted the product from the depot to private marketers that resell at exorbitant price.

An Akure resident, Mr. Olumide Aliu, allegedly narrated how Mania Filling Station in the State capital always gets fuel diversion from Conoil, Oando and other major marketers and sell above the government price.

Aliu and other sources who spoke to The Guardian accused the major marketers, security agencies and the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) of conniving with the indpendent marketers to extort the people of the state, pointing out that officials of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corp (NSCDC) arrived Mania Filling Station in Akure to the joy of the long queue of buyers that thought they would intervene to moderate the price.

According to him: “To our surprise, they walked into the office of the manager and after a while stepped out, went into their patrol van and drove off. Immediately, the petrol attendants resumed selling to the buyers at the rate ofN200 per litre.”

Another source who pleaded anonymity, revealed that he was in Forte Oil petrol station when someone from Mania Filling Station drove inside to break the queue and bought 215 litres of petrol to resell at higher price. He disclosed that only those who can buy their ways through would survive the perennial fuel scarcity.

The source revealed that the black marketers have some people in NNPC and among the major marketers, whom they work with hoarding and reselling petrol at higher rates.

Reacting to the allegation against the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigerian (IPMAN), the association’s state chairman, Mr. Bayo Olowokere, denied the allegation.

Olowokere explained that all the independent marketers have to sell what they bought, though at subsidized and considerate price that would not mete undue hardship on the people of the state and as well run them out of business. He lamented the acute shortage ofsupply of the product in the State.

The IPMAN chairman disclosed that during one of his recent trips to Lagos State, he bought a litre of petrol for N400; a price tag which he said has never happened in the country before.

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