IPMAN commends FG for rehabilitating moribund depots in Southwest

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Western Zone, has commended the Federal Government for the ongoing resuscitation of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depots in the zone.

Alhaji Debo Ahmed, Chairman, IPMAN, Western zone, gave the commendation in an interview with our reporter in Lagos on Monday.

It was reported that the GMD of the NNPC, Alhaji Maikanti Baru, had on Oct. 4, re-opened the Apata depot in Ibadan which had been shut for over two years following vandalism of pipelines.

Baru said that President Muhammadu Buhari was concerned about ease of fuel distribution and supply to every part of the company, which informed his commitment to upgrading of storage facilities across Nigeria.

“With the turnaround of the depots in Aba, Ejigbo, Lagos, Mosimi, Kano and now Ibadan, the government has set the pace for steady supply of oil across the country,” the GMD said.

Commenting on challenges faced by marketers in loading products at private depots in Apapa, Ahmed said that the revival of the depots was a welcome development.

The chairman said that the rehabilitation of all the moribund depots became necessary to address loading challenges encountered by western zone marketers in Lagos private depots in Apapa.

According to him, the development is a huge boost to petroleum distribution in the region.

“It is one of the key mandates of the present administration to revamp these abandoned assets and put them back to work for the overall security and improvement of petroleum products supply and distribution for the benefit of all Nigerians.

“We commend government’s effort under the leadership of Dr Maikanti Baru, the GMD NNPC, towards rehabilitating Ejigbo, Mosinmi and Ibadan depots.

“We are very happy because Ibadan depot, which is the biggest depot in the southwest region, had been moribund in past two years,’’ he said.

The IPMAN boss assured that his members would partner with NNPC officials to ensure the protection and surveillance of the petroleum product pipelines to curb incessant vandalism.

He appealed to Baru to expedite action in rehabilitating the Ore and Ilorin depots to ease distribution and loading activities within the axis.

Ahmed, however, appealed to the management of NNPC to revisit the introduction of renewal of bulk purchasing agreement for marketers loading at NNPC depots.

“We appeal to government to reconsider the bulk purchases agreement on marketers.

“We are told that all marketers should come and renew their bulk purchase agreement for four years again, having paid and signed during registration with the depots initially.

“We want government to know what it is doing because it is another form of exploiting the marketers. We are not sure the money is going to Federal Government’s account,’’ he said.

Ahmed said that agreement renewal had hindered majority of the marketers from loading at NNPC depots in the South-West, adding that IPMAN members were asked to pay N125,000 before loading.

On imminent labour strike over pending N800 billion debt owed marketers, Ahmed appealed to both government and marketers to dialogue properly to avert the strike.