The Northern Independent Petroleum Marketers Forum (NIPMF) has said its members may be compelled to suspend services over a N250 billion debt owed to it by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA).
The debt, according to the forum, is for the last year.
Chairman of the forum, Musa Yahya Maikifi, disclosed this at a meeting in Kano on Thursday.
He said the failure to pay up will affect petroleum distribution in all the Northern states as forum members of the forum could no longer afford to transport and supply petroleum products for sale at various outlets.
Secretary of the forum, Jarma Mustapha said the outstanding bridging claims were up to May 29 when deregulation was announced by President Bola Tinubu.
“As the new deregulation regime started now, we are faced with difficulties such as lack of capacity, and lack of capital to continue our business because most of our capital was hung with the defunct Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF).
“We are now calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene so that the whole of our outstanding claims, up to the 30th of May 2023, when the new deregulation was announced, should be paid for our members to continue getting enough capital to continue being in business.”
Continuing, Mustapha noted that “Today, the capital you need to have one truck of the product before has multiplied by four to have the same number of trucks today. Almost all of our members are going out of business. Based on that, we are appealing to the President to intervene, talk to the authorities concerned to immediately pay all our outstanding claims.”
Mustapha explained that bridging claims are contributed by the consumers, which are collected by the marketers and paid to NNPCL, while, NNPCL collects and pays into the collective fund of the Equalisation Fund.
“That money is not budgeted, which is financed by the government. It is financed by the consumers through the marketers, basically to equalize prices across the country.
“We will follow diplomatic means to access the fund, but we cannot guarantee that the diplomatic means will be sustainable. We don’t know how to control our members. It is incumbent on the government to look at the situation, consider our support for the deregulation policies, and do the needful.
“As businesspeople, we do not go on strike but if the situation persists, we will just withdraw our services, which we do not pray for such to happen,” Mustapha added.
