Fuel Scarcity: IPMAN blames private depots for price increase

This was revealed recently by the Chairman of the western zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Dele Tajudeen in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).

He linked the current scarcity being witnessed in some parts of the country to the price hike in petroleum products by private depot owners.

According to Tajudeen, there are no products in any depots belonging to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPC) and this has made the private depots take advantage of the situation to increase the price of PMS.

Speaking further, Tajudeen noted that there had been an increase in the depot price of fuel from N148.17 per litre to N178 per litre since last week.

The lack of product in the NNPC depot Tajiuden said, had caused some of the marketers to turn to the private depots, to keep the business moving.

This move he added, has affected the profit margins and the masses tend to suffer in the end as they have to purchase the products at inflated prices,

“Some private depots who have the product, deliberately, refused to sell for reasons best known to them,” he said.

The IPMAN chairman also confirmed that due to the very high prices from the private depots, some marketers within Lagos, Ogun and Oyo states now sell between N195 and N200 per litre while those in Kwara, Ondo, Osun and Ekiti states will sell between N200 and N210.