The Ogun State chapter of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has called on the Department of State Security (DSS) to go after those who are making supplies difficult for IPMAN members.
Recall that the DSS had last week gave the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and oil marketers a 48-hour ultimatum to make petrol available across Nigeria and end the fuel scarcity.
But while reacting to the DSS ultimatum, IPMAN Chairman in Ogun State, Femi Adelaja, threatened that its member would shut down all its outlets across the state over the secret police ultimatum.
According to him, such policy has failed “in its sense of reasoning with genuine business operators who do not get product from government’s depot to sell same at government approved price.” He accused the DSS of choosing “the path of dishonour by threatening to go after IPMAN members, whose businesses survive on loans and other credit facilities provided by commercial banks at a not-too-friendly interest rate.”
The statement read, “Rather than for the security operatives to go after those who are making supplies difficult for IPMAN members, they have chosen the path of dishonour by threatening to go after IPMAN members, whose businesses survives on loans and other credit facilities provided by commercial banks at a not-too-friendly interest rate.
If any of the law enforcing agencies in Nigeria is genuinely concerned about the security of the country, they should go after the NNPCL officials and ensure that they make the product available for independent marketers at the already agreed price and desist from the unnecessary ranting ‘of a wounded lion’”.
The association warned the DSS to reverse it’s earlier threats to clampdown on IPMAN members, and also apologize to Nigerians on its action.
“IPMAN however, warned that should the DSS fails to reverse its position and apologize to the peace loving members of the Nigerian society, whose psyche was affected by its earlier statement, we would be left with no alternative than to close all our outlets across Ogun State,” he said.
