TheCable

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has urged the federal government to prevail upon the petroleum tanker drivers (PTD) association, to immediately cease the “illegal” fee imposed on its members. 

According to NAN, Yakubu Suleiman, IPMAN national public relations officer (PRO), spoke during a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday.

Suleiman said it has become imperative for the federal government and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to know those sabotaging the distribution of premium motor spirit (PMS), also known as petrol, in the country.

Suleiman said the PTD allegedly exhibited an act of sabotage on petrol distribution by levying IPMAN members N23,000 for each truck loaded at the depot.

The IPMAN spokesperson said the levy imposed on IPMAN members by tanker drivers has further reduced their profit margins. 

Suleiman said a truckload of petrol used to cost them around seven million naira, but with the elimination of petrol subsidy, the cost to load and transport the same product to their numerous fuel stations rose to over N23 million.

“We have been fighting extortion by petroleum tanker drivers for about 10 years now and we have been telling them that this market is based on profit but our pleas have fallen on deaf ears,” he said. 

“They have been extorting different amounts from our members; from N200,000 and we thought that with the removal of subsidy, the era of extortion will go, unfortunately, more have been added.

“Reports have reached our secretariat of another levy of N23,000 being collected by PTD from our members and we do not know what that money is for.

“We make a profit of only N500,000 on each truck of PMS we now buy at above N23 million and it can take us days or weeks to sell.

“Inside that N500,000, there are other logistics that we must take care of, especially providing fuel for the trucks that will carry the product, providing fuel for the engine that will carry light at the stations, and so on.

“At the end of the day, we are left with about N200,000; we do it out of patriotism and support to the FG and NNPC, then from nowhere, our members are paying N23,000 for what they don’t know about.”

He, therefore, urged PTD to stop collecting the levy, as IPMAN members have been instructed to stop the payment.