PPMC URGES MARKETERS TO DESIST HOARDING, PRICE HIGH-JACK OF FUEL

The Chairman of Akwa Ibom State Petroleum Products Monitoring Committee(PPMC), Otuekong Emmanuel Ibiok has urged the petroleum marketers  in the state to desist from hoarding and arbitrary jack-up of pump prices of petrol(PMS),but should cooperate with government to alleviate the collateral suffering of the citizen.

Describing these persons as “shylock profiteers”, Otuekong Ibiok appealed to the Marketers to show their enduring sense of sacrifice by shunning acts capable of imposing huge burdens on the suffering masses.  The Special Assistant to Akwa Ibom State Governor on PPMC urged them to resist joining ranks with certain classes of oil marketers whose unpatriotic intent he said is suspect to holding the nation and her citizens to ransom.

In a press release signed by Udeme Uyoata, Press Secretary to PPMC, Otuekong Emmanuel Ibiok said that Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria(MOMAN), Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria(IPMAN), and Jetties and Petroleum Tank Farms Owners of Nigeria(JEPTON) has issued a warning, among other operators in the industry, informing the Nigerian public of a likely fuel scarcity leading from its collective threat to shut-down private depots across the country and in the effect,  withdraw its services.

The Special Assistant to governor Akpabio said the threat which has since come into damning effect was in a purported protest over Federal Governments’ non-payment of subsidy claims to its claimant.

He said the Minister for Petroleum Resources, Mrs Diezani Allison Madueke had blamed the actions of Oil Marketers for culminating in the marginal fuel scarcity faced in many cities and urban centers across the nation including the nation’s capital, Abuja, which fuel sold for as high as N300 per liter.

Otuekong Ibiok stressed that the crisis had nothing to do with shortages of petroleum products, assuring Nigerians that NNPC and the Petroleum Products and Pipeline Marketing Company has enough stock in its reserves to last the nation’s consumption needs for a period of 45 days.

He said National Union of Petroleum and Gas Workers(NUPENG) has sought to join position with subsidy claimants but that Federal Government dialogued with the Union to rescind her ultimatum for a strike action. He added that the Honorable Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the economy, Dr. Ngozi Okonyo-Iwela has interfaced with the fuel subsidy claimant to put to a wholesome rest the matter.

He said that though media reports misrepresenting the national situation as worsening in the state, PPMC called on the public not to disparage government, panic or be pushed into undertaking dangerous measures as such could turn out to be harmful to both life and property.