TUE. 07 FEB, 2023-theGBJournal| In a surprising and daring move, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Monday ordered its members to suspend their operations and shut all petrol stations across the country.
But in another twist, the Association said today that it has called off the order to shutdown operations across the country.
News reports quotes an IPMAN spokesperson in Maiduguri as saying that the suspension order has been called off today and confirmed that the earlier order to shutdown was true.
The confusion comes as the NNPC Limited Sunday issued its Weekly National PMS Evacuation & Dispatch Report for the week 28th January to 3rd February, 2023 in response to various arguments about the real reason for the nationwide scarcity.
The state-owned oil company in the report said its average daily evacuation totaled 64.42 million litres. But none of that has helped to ease the queue at various petrol stations across the country.
‘’This is shocking and exacerbates an already toxic social atmosphere,’’ a university lecture and social commentator told theG&BJournal in Lagos in response to the ‘’contradicting’’ IPMAN action.
The earlier ‘shutdown’ order is contained in a statement signed Monday by IPMAN Chairman, Alhaji Mohammed Kuluwu. TheG&BJournal tried to contact the IPMAN for comment but all phone lines were not connecting at as press time.
‘’This is surely going to impact everything harder and puts the 2023 general election under serious squeeze,’’ our source said.
IPMAN, in the statement Monday said the decision is based on the difficulties encountered in sourcing and the selling of their products to consumers ‘’at a lost and the action of the authority to impose the selling of product at a lost price on our side.’’
IPMAN also had ordered its members to suspend the payment of ordering products from source until further notice.
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