Uche Usim, Abuja
Oil marketers have totally disregarded the earlier directive of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) urging them to crash petrol price from N145/litre to N140 between February 20 and 22, as a way of supporting President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election project. From Uche Usim, Abuja
Scores of filling stations visited in Abuja on Wednesday and Thursday morning still sold petrol at N145/litre with the fuel attendants saying they did not receive any instructions from their superiors to adjust their meters to N140.
In Wuse area, filling station managers insisted they had to sell at N145 because the shortfall from the N5 reduction would result in billions of naira loss.
“Our profit margin is less than N5. If we now lose N5, you can imagine the loss. The government has not even paid us the subsidy claims and you now add this loss to it. Do you want us to close shops? We can’t crash the petrol price. We’re businessmen. We can’t play politics with our business,” a station manager who claimed anonymity said.
Recall that the National President of IPMAN, Chinedu Okoronkwo, had earlier in the week announced that his members would crash petrol price following the penultimate Saturday’s last-minute postponement of the presidential and National Assembly elections by Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.
READ ALSO: Polls: Group tackles INEC, NYSC over poor logistics for corps members
Asked if IPMAN would ask the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to accommodate the N5 margin loss as a result of the slash, Okoronkwo said the burden would be borne by the marketers.
“We’re not asking the NNPC to bear it. It is within our margin. It’s a sacrifice we want to make for peace and development. If Buhari wins and there’s peace, our business will boom. Its part of our sacrifice for national peace and development,” he said.
Okoronkwo also said the slash would be soothing news for Nigerians having traveled to different places across the country to cast their votes but were jolted by the postponement.
He said: “We urged all our members across Nigeria to immediately reduce the price of petroleum pump price from N145 to N140.
“This is because of the political situation in the country, following INEC’s sudden postponement of presidential and National Assembly elections after Nigerians were fully prepared.
“We are all aware how Nigerians traveled to different destinations across the country in order to exercise their civic duty, unfortunately, they heard sad news of the postponement of the polls.
“We consider this situation to reduce the pump price in order to ease their suffering, and to also motivate them to travel again to exercise their franchise on February 23.”
The IPMAN president, therefore, urged his members nationwide to comply immediately and ensure the success of the directive.
Okworonkwo also said IPMAN’s decision to reduce the petroleum pump price followed President Muhammadu Buhari’s concern over the election postponement.
“We decided to express our concern over the postponement, as president Buhari expressed concern over the development.
“As Buhari apologised to Nigerians to show restraint and return to the polling units on February 23; IPMAN, therefore, called on the citizens to exercise patience and come out en masse to cast their votes on the rescheduled date,” he added.