Badagry petroleum marketers urge FG to declare stand on pump price


 

Badagry ------------- The Association of Petroleum Marketers, Badagry branch, Lagos State, on Wednesday asked the Federal Government to declare a definite stand on pump price of petrol in the country.

Chairman of the association, Alhaji Abdul-Ganiyu Adelani, who spoke on the issue, told newsmen in Badagry that disparity in the price of loading at tank farms led to increase in the pump price of the product.

Adelani noted that, while the filing stations of few major marketers were selling fuel at N165, the independent marketers sold at between N190 and N200.

His words, “Most of the major marketers are not having the products, making the motorists to queue up at filling stations of few independent marketers that are selling.

“If the government wants to increase the pump price of petroleum, they should announce it and make the product available so that marketers can get it.

“At the same time, if government is not increasing petrol price, they should make the product available so that filing stations will get it to sell.

“Throughout Badagry none of the filing stations of major marketers are selling petrol; it is only independent marketers’ filing stations that residents are buying from. The price is between N180 and N200 per litre."

There were queues at filing stations in Badagry but the situation had reduced as most of the filing stations were selling the product.

A litre of petrol sold at N180 at NNPC Mega Station in Itoga, Forte Oil and AP filing stations along Disu Joseph way, Badagry, but the same quantity sold at N190 at Obinja filing station, God Decision and Ayomide filing stations, while Royal Sunad and Jacos filing stations sold at N200 per litre.

On Tuesday, the Federal Government said the fixed pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, PMS, remained N165 per litre as stipulated in the petroleum product pricing template, according to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, Nigerian National Petroleum Company, NNPC, Ltd., and the Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, PPMC, after visiting jetties in Apapa, Lagos.

Executive Director, Distribution Systems, Storage and Retail Infrastructure, NMDPRA, Mr Ugbugo Ukoha, maintained that petrol was a regulated product and urged marketers to comply with the pricing template.

IPMAN had advised its members to adjust the pump price of PMS to a minimum of N180 per litre on Monday, noting that the move was necessitated by the increment in the ex-depot price of PMS by some private depots where they were buying the product from.