Nigerians must prepare to buy petrol at N195/litre in the next few days, a member of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said.
The Chief Executive Officer of Kakanda Oil and Gas Nigeria Limited, Danasabe Kakanda, who addressed reporters in Abuja over the weekend, blamed the Federal Government’s inconsistent policy on deregulation of the petrol supply chain for the imminent pump price hike.
He spoke against the backdrop of a last week statement by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) that there was no immediate price rise until a scheduled meeting between the Federal Government and labour unions at the end of the month.
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Kakanda noted that while the NNPC had assured independent marketers of the availability of product, the reality was different from what the government stated as they could not access the product at NNPC depots.
This, he said, compelled the independent marketers to approach private depot owners.
According to him, the government was giving private depot owners an advantage over independent marketers.
Kakanda said it was wrong for the government to leave the independent marketers at the mercy of private depot owners in sourcing of products since they both own filling stations and therefore were competitors.
“With the inconsistencies of government, Nigerians should expect the price of fuel to be between N190 and N195,” Vanguard quoted Kakanda to have said.
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Also speaking, another IPMAN member and Chief Executive Officer of Foste Nigeria Limited, Chief Austin Erhabor said it was high-time the Federal Government came clean on whether the petroleum supply chain had been deregulated or not.
He saidit amounted to hypocrisy for the government to claim to have deregulated the supply chain while still fixing the pump price of petrol.
“It is time for them to separate politics from economics. Our business is dying. How can you be talking about deregulation and you are mentioning official pump price?’’