The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria has ordered a total closure of all filling stations across Oyo state for what it described as alleged harassment and intimidation of it’s members by officers of the IGP Monitoring Squad.
The Chairman of the association, Bukola Mutiu disclosed this while speaking with newsmen at IPMAN’s headquarters in Ibadan.
Mutiu linked the ongoing fuel scarcity across the state to the high cost of diesel as well as the inability of Oyo State-based petroleum marketers to load fuel directly from Ibadan depot.
He said the association had been trying to manage the crisis for a very long time before the matter went beyond control due to the hike in price of diesel as well as the Premium Motor Spirit otherwise known as Petrol.
According to him, “It is so unfortunate that all the depots in South-West are not working, we can’t load from Ibadan depot here, we need to travel to Lagos or far East to buy from some local marketers that bought the fuel from NNPC.
Sometimes we buy at the rate of N158-N159 per litre and lately it has increased and by the time we add transport cost which is N18 per litre then you will see that there is no how we will sell at the government pump price of N165 and that is the reason why you see some of us selling at N180 per litre, the government should find a way to deregulate the oil sector.
The association also called on the government to clear the air on who exactly has the mandate to enforce compliance of price sales instead of being harassed by unknown task forces.
