Ola Ajayi
13 February 2013, Sweetcrude, Ibadan – The Bulk Purchase Agreements renewal fee of N125,000 introduced by the Pipeline and Products Marketing Company, PPMC, to marketers, has pitched it with members of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN.
The oil marketers, under the aegis of Concerned Marketers, have described the fee as unilateral, absurd and provocative.
Already, the oil marketers are contemplating court action to have the fee nullified.
This was disclosed yesterday by Concerned Marketers while speaking with newsmen at the association’s secretariat, Ago Taylor, Ibadan.
IPMAN, after some calculation said 8,000 of its members would now turn in over N1 billion into the coffers of PPMC.
They complained that their umbrella IPMAN could not protect members.
Former Vice-Chairman of the association in the South-Western zone, Mr. Bashiru Yusuf, who spoke on behalf of the group, recalled that the association called for extension of time when the policy was introduced last year because of the problems its members were going through.
He said part of the problems was “inadequacy of products for the generality of them to lift and sell at their respective stations at N97 per litre and also the fact that IPMAN members were unable to form a consensus on the issue.”
Ibadan depot, he said, had “set up a committee to look into this same issue and a letter was written to the Managing Director, PPMC, without any reply till date.
“In fact, information at our disposal indicates that the letter couriered to the office of the Managing Director was opened, read and couriered back to the depot the way it was sent.”
