The Executive Secretary of Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPPMA), Olufemi Adewole, said the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) lied when it said members of the association owed it N26.7bn.
According to Adewole, members of DAPPMA had, in the past one month, paid over N90bn for petrol supply but had yet to receive any cargo from the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of NNPC.
The NNPC, in a statement in Abuja by its Group General Manager, Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu, said that it had continued to supply the marketers large quantities of the product despite the group’s N26.7 billion debts to the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, PPMC, as at December 21, 2017.
Ughamadu further accused DAPPMA of refusing to resume fuel imports, despite the concession granted the group by the Federal Government to obtain foreign exchange at the official rate of N305 to a dollar.
DAPPMA statement reads:
“The essence of our initial ‘press release’ was to throw light on salient issues surrounding the shortfall in current petrol supply which is presently solely handled by the NNPC. It was not an attempt to join issues with PPMC/NNPC with which we are partners.
“NNPC’s view of our press release stating our side of the story and seeking to defend marketers for the very first time, against the unwarranted accusations of hoarding and profiteering is rather unfortunate.
“It is an indisputable fact that DAPPMA members have paid for petrol supply (with bank funds) for over one month, the value of which is in excess of N90bn, yet PPMC/NNPC had no cargo to allocate to them. As such, how can we be held responsible for hoarding?
“PPMC/NNPC do 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.
“Marketers have continued to sacrifice to keep the country wet with fuel despite over N600bn debt owed our members and over N800bn 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 co-operate with PPMC/NNPC to eliminate the fuel queues nationwide within the next few days.”
Meanwhile, Senate President Dr. Bukola Saraki has directed the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream) to cut short its recess and immediately convene a meeting with industry stakeholders.
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Petroleum Resources (Downstream), Senator Kabiru Marafa, who disclosed this in Abuja, said following the directive, the Committee has summoned the Minister of State for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu; Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, Mr. Maikanti Baru and other relevant stakeholders in the petroleum sector to a crucial meeting on January 4, 2018.
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