Bimbola Oyesola, Seye Ojo
As Nigerians continue to groan under the scarcity of petroleum products and the attendant hike in prices, the leadership of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN) yesterday reiterated its call to the management of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to compel all marketers and retailers to make the products available at approved price.
The union also insisted that licences of defaulting marketers should be withdrawn to serve as deterrent to others.
PENGASSAN president, Festus Osifo, and the general secretary, Lumumba Okugbawa, said NMDPRA should immediately mobilize all its staff in various locations across the country to monitor compliance.
“Should this collusion go on unchecked, we will not hesitate to partner with other stakeholders in ensuring that Nigerians are not further exploited,” the union warned.
Empathising with the publics, the union said its national leadership has been following up with members in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) Trading Limited who are responsible for assigning the products to marketers and members from NMDPRA in various depots and terminals across the country that are responsible for issuing cargo clearance, monitoring compliance, routing inspection, metering calibration/maintenance, accurate delivery to trucks, record keeping, etc. on the need to carry out their functions expeditiously.
The union insisted that there is no basis for the marketers to be selling at such high prices seen across the country presently.
“While we understand that the parameters imputed into the old PPPRA and now NMDPRA template has since changed because of some economic vagaries such as exchange rate fluctuation, vessel hiring cost and cost of AGO amongst others, there is no sufficient justification for PMS (Petrol) to be selling for such highly inflated price, thereby subjecting the masses to further difficulties.
“Even though we have some good marketers who tend to play by the rules, others who are overbearing have deployed methods of creating artificial scarcities in other to hike the price of the product uncontrollably as the prices of the product now sells between N185 to N650 depending on your location and outlet,” the statement read.
It also noted that the country have more than 30 days reserve, “from data available to us from our members, there is over 30 days PMS sufficiency in the country; hence there is no basis for the current scarcity and hardship that Nigerians are being subjected to.”