Lagos – The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA) on Thursday said that its members paid over N90 billion for over a month and were yet to get allocation for cargo of fuel from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC)/Petroleum Product Marketing Company (PPMC).
“It is an undisputable fact that DAPPMA members have paid for petrol supply (with bank funds) for over one month, the value of which is in excess of N90 billion; yet, PPMC/NNPC had no cargo to allocate to them. As such, how can we be held responsible for hoarding? Olufemi Adewole, Executive Secretary of DAPPMA, said in a statement.
He also claimed that the association was not aware of any indebtedness to PPMC to the tune of N26.7 billion as at December 21, 2017.
“PPMC/NNPC does not transact business with DAPPMA members on credit; hence we are not aware of any indebtedness to PPMC/NNPC by our members. We again reject any attempt to blame marketers for the shortfall in supply as it is not our making since NNPC has been the sole importer since October 2017”, he said.
Describing NNPC’s accusation of hoarding and profiteering against his members as unwarranted, Adewole said that marketers have continued to sacrifice to keep the country wet with fuel despite over N600 billion debts owed them and over N800 billion owed marketers as a whole by the Federal Government.
“We assure Nigerians, irrespective of NNPC’s stance that all possible steps are being taken as we have always done to cooperate with PPMC/NNPC to eliminate the fuel queues nationwide within the next few days.”
It would be recalled that NNPC had, on Wednesday, taken DAPPMA to the cleaners over the latter’s claim that its members were yet to get fuel stock from the former’s huge supply of the product in recent time.
Describing the depot owners’ claim as unfortunate, the corporation, in a statement, said that it has supplied appreciable volume to DAPPMA, Major Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) and Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) in order to rid the challenges currently being experienced in the supply and distribution of petroleum products in the country.
The corporation also said that it regretted that DAPPMA, whose members had taken receipts of products from PPMC, a subsidiary of NNPC, and owed the company to the tune of N26.7 billion as at December 21, 2017, has the audacity to indict NNPC unjustifiably.
“The statement by DAPPMA that the current hiccups in the supply of products were due to the inability of the direct sale direct purchase (DSDP) partners of NNPC to deliver on their business obligations is unfounded and self-indicting as many of DAPPMA members patronise the same DSDP international counterparts as the corporation.
“Despite the concession by the government giving access to DAPPMA to obtain forex at an official rate of N305 per dollar for PMS import, their members have not been able to do so, leaving NNPC as the sole supplier of PMS to the Nigerian market,” the statement added.
It assured the public that despite the increase it effected in the supply of PMS in December 2017, it has, however, programmed to supply 1.2 billion litres of the white products in January 2018, translating to about 40 million litres of PMS supply per day. Ordinarily, Nigeria consumes about 700 trucks (about 27 million – 30 million) litres per day.
The statement reiterated that there was no plan to increase PMS pump price above N145/litre and that NNPC would continue to maintain ex-depot price of N133.28/litre, which guarantees the pump price not exceeding the N145 per litre capped by the government.
“All stakeholders are implored to support the efforts of government to bring a speedy end to the current fuel distribution challenges being experienced in parts of the country as this is not the time to play the blame game,” spokesman of the NNPC, Ndu Ughamadu, said in the statement.
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