The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited plans to execute a contract with independent oil marketers that would guarantee that the price of gasoline at the ex-depot is N148 per litre.
The new managing director of NNPCL Retail, Hubb Stockman, has vowed to directly provide IPMAN members with goods, according to Mike Osatuyi, the national controller of operations for the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu stated on Thursday that the scheme must be terminated no matter how long people protest the elimination of subsidies for Premium Motor Spirit, also known as gasoline.
Osatuyi expressed the following on the arrangement with NNPCL: “They (NNPCL) have now put IPMAN under him (Stockman) directly, and he’s a good guy. With the series of meetings we have been having with him, something good will come out of it, latest by January.
“We will get products directly from NNPCL and we won’t have to go through the depots. He’s a white guy, and you know whites don’t play politics. By that, prices of products will go down. But what we are asking for again, is consistency in product delivery to us, and let it not be a one-off thing.”
The chairman of IPMAN Satellite Depot, Akin Akinrinade, had told The PUNCH on Wednesday that private depot owners continued raising prices because gasoline was now being sold to them for more than N200 per litre.
The price of gasoline at NNPCL’s filling stations was N169 per litre, while big merchants sold it for N170 per litre and IPMAN charged roughly N250 per litre, depending on the region.
On Thursday, the lines for gasoline became longer in Lagos but shortened in certain areas of Abuja.
The APC presidential candidate said on Thursday that the plan must be ended, regardless of how long people resist the removal of the fuel subsidy on PMS.
In response to the urgent issue of gasoline subsidies, Tinubu pledged to make courageous decisions that would revive the economy if he were elected President of Nigeria. One of these decisions would be a tough stance on fuel subsidies.
Tinubu stressed that Nigeria would stop subsidizing fuel use in its neighbors during his speech at the “Business Forward” business luncheon with business owners at the Wings, Victoria Island, Lagos.
He was quoted in a statement issued by Tunde Rahman of Tinubu Media Office as saying, “How can we be subsidising fuel consumption of Cameroon, of Niger, of Benin Republic. No matter how long you protest, we are going to remove subsidy.”
