Uche Usim, Abuja
An all-night meeting of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) in Abuja, ended in a deadlock, Thursday as members could not fashion out a definite strategy to tackle the three-month old crisis that has disrupted commercial activities in Abuja and other parts of the country.
The eight-hour meeting, Daily Sun gathered, started about 10pm on Wednesday and ended about 5:50am on Thursday.
Since no resolution was reached, the union cancelled the post-meeting press conference earlier scheduled to hold at Madugu Hotels in Jabi, Abuja, yesterday by 9am.
An IPMAN executive, Mr Bayo Adewale Ogefila in a text message to Daily Sun at 5:51am said: “The meeting ended just now without a definite stand. We are asked to suspend the media chat for today.
Accept my sincere apology for the inconvenience”.
However, Ogefila did not indicate whether the meeting continues today (yesterday) or not and has not taken his call as at the time of filing this report.
Recall that the ongoing petrol scarcity nightmare has obviously defied all resolution strategies outlined by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and other government agencies.
The ugly development has also emboldened hawkers who sell the product at exorbitant prices to rip off hapless motorists.
There is also the petrol diversion allegation levelled against IPMAN and depot owners by the NNPC.
While the two bodies have vehemently denied the allegation, they insist the NNPC as a sole importer lacks the capacity and capability to meet local consumption since IPMAN and depot owners control about 75 per cent of the warehousing facilities nationwide.
More so, with the landing cost of petrol pegged at N171.40k, stakeholders say selling at N145/litre was impossible as it is tantamount to committing business suicide.
They also want the government to come out clearly to announce if the nation was back to full petrol subsidy regime, rather than running the sector in a most opaque manner.