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Oil marketers deny bribing NNPC officials

By on February 19, 2014

National President of Independent Petroleum Marketers  Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Alhaji Aminu  Abdulkadir has denied allegations that its members bribed officials of the oil ministry, describing the allegation as false and politically motivated.

Abdulkadir also warned against removal of kerozene subsidy, say it could trigger social unrest in the country even as he defended the subsidy regime as a neccesity until the product becomes sufficiently available in the country.

Speaking with newsmen in Abuja, Abdulkadir said the association viewed “with serious concern the politically motivated allegation of bribery against Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, NNPC officials by faceless marketers who claim to be paying N25 per litter above the official price without any proof.”

According to him, “It is quite intriguing that some mischievous individuals are hellbent on turning the downstream petroleum industry into a political theatre without minding the negative impact of such on the economy. It is now obvious that these enemies of peace in the industry, having instigated all manners of  public hearing in collusion with their allies to truncate the supply stability the populace,  have been enjoying with the aim of discrediting the efforts of the leadership of the petroleum industry,  have now resulted to negative press war”, the IPMAN President said in a statement.

He noted “that IPMAN  controls 87 per cent of total retail outlets in the country with over 30,000 retail outlets. As a matter of fact, if the alleged practice were occurring in the industry as mentioned, IPMAN members would have been aware of it. The fact that IPMAN is not aware of such demonstrates the hollowness of the allegation as blatantly concerted lies.”

He noted that NNPC  does not transact with any marketer without bulk purchase agreement and that NNPC/PPMC have conducted verification exercise of retail outlets in the country and have since sanctioned some fake marketers from lifting products.

 

 

 

[Vanguard]