THE Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), yesterday, inaugurated a surveillance team to monitor the sale of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise called petrol, at the government's approved control price of N65 to members of the public.
Already, the team, which is saddled with the responsibility of monitoring sales in the South West states of Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Lagos, Osun and Ekiti, including Kogi and Kwara, has been mandated to sanction any erring member caught selling above the pump price.
Addressing reporters in Ibadan at the end of the zonal executive meeting of the association, the Chiarman of the monitoring body, Chief Olatunji Aderoju said since the intervention of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) through its NNPC/IPMAN 'warroom' (War Against Perennial scarcity) approach, petroleum marketers have been lifting the product with ease at the various private depots leaving no room for any price increase.
Aderoju, who used the occasion to commend NNPC for its intervention, said the corporation's meeting with IPMAN on how to end the fuel scarcity has yielded the desired results as normalcy has started returning to the sector.
Since the perennial fuel scarcity hit the state capital, most filling stations, particular the independent petroleum marketers have been selling the product above the federal government stipulated price.
Except for the major marketers who kept to the regulated price, other stations sell a litre of petrol between N75 and N90.
But in what appears a move to sanitize the market following the NNPC intervention, Aderoju said the PMS is now readily available, as all the private depots have resumed normal operational activities.
He said: "We appreciate the NNPC for its intervention, since its involvement, we have been picking the products with ease, if the situation will continue like this, the problem of scarcity will be a thing of the past.
"Based on the NNPC involvement and the cooperation of the depots which has commenced normal activities, the IPMAN has set up a surveillance team to monitor the pricing of petrol to ensure that our members do not sell beyond the pump price. The product is now readily available, if it can continue like this; the problem of scarcity will be a thing of the past."
Apart from the private depots, IPMAN also appealed to the NNPC to start pumping petrol through the strategic depots. These include Mosimi, Ore, Ilorin and Apata among others.
The association also called for the intervention of the NNPC in the supply of the dual purpose kerosene, to ease the masses of the pain and hardship they are currently facing.
Source:© Copyright Guardian
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