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Marketers Struggle To Raise N10bn For New Petrol Orders
Many depot owners may soon shut down their facilities due to the inability to meet the new financial requirement of about N10bn by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited as the cost of lifting fuel from its ships.
Many filling stations in Lagos State were not selling products to the public.
Sources at the depots told The PUNCH that depot owners were struggling to raise between N5b-N10bn to make new orders from the NNPCL.
“NNPCL has enough stock in-country and we still buy from them pending when arrangements would be made for us to start ordering our products ourselves. Now, we have to raise about N10bn, some N5bn depending on the volume of the order to be able to access new products,” the sources said.
He added that the amount was in addition to the payment already made before the increase in the price of petrol.
The National Controller, Operations of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Mike Osatuyi, told The PUNCH that the affected stations did not have products due to the increase in the prices of products at the depots.
According to him, filling station owners are currently required to have between N22.5m and N23m to buy a truck of petrol, adding that one truck was sold for N8m before May 29.
A former Chairman of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Tunji Oyebanji, also told The PUNCH that 33, 000 metric tonnes of petrol at depots had shut up to as high as N21m.
The PUNCH learnt that many depot owners currently do not have stock as they had exhausted their stocks before President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of the petrol subsidy on May 29.
“Many depot owners would not be able to access funds because banks are skeptical of granting loans to the downstream sector,” a source added.
The pump price of petrol, which was between N179 and N200 per litre before subsidy removal, has skyrocketed to over N500 per litre after the President’s pronouncement.
Oyebanji told The PUNCH that many smaller firms in the downstream sector would be forced to shut down operations and may be bought over by bigger ones due to their inability to meet up with the huge financial obligations to secure new products from the NNPCL.
Sources at the NNPCL told The PUNCH that the company had been having challenges accessing forex from the Central Bank of Nigeria, since the removal of petrol subsidy.
“Since full deregulation started, CBN has stopped giving us forex. We also have to source for dollars just like every other player in the downstream sector. So, depending on the dollar rates and other market indices, we import and have to also factor other costs before we sell to marketers,” the sources noted.
The Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN has warned against obstructing the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from carrying out its lawful duty .
Fagbemi’s warning is contained in a statement in Abuja.
“This is a matter of very grave concern, it is now beyond doubt that the EFCC is given power by the law to invite any person of interest to interact with them in the course of their investigations into any matter, regardless of status.
“Therefore, the least that we can all do when invited, is not to put any obstruction in the way of EFCC, but to honourably answer their invitation.
“A situation where public officials who are themselves subject of protection by law enforcement agents will set up a stratagem of obstruction to the civil and commendable efforts of the EFCC to perform its duty is to say the least, insufferably disquieting’’.
He added that running away from the law will not resolve issues at stake but only exacerbate them.
“Nigeria has a vibrant judicial system that is capable of protecting everyone who follows the rule of law in seeking protection.
“I therefore encourage anyone who has been invited by the EFCC or any other agency to immediately toe the path of decency and civility by honouring such invitation instead of embarking on a temporising self-help and escapism.
“This can only put our country in bad light before the rest of the world’’.
He said institutions of state should be allowed to function effectively and efficiently.
“I stand for the rule of law and will promptly call EFCC, and indeed any other agency to order when there is an indication of any transgressions of the fundamental rights of any Nigerian by any of the agencies’’.
NAN reports that the EFCC had on Wednesday warned members of the public that it was a criminal offence to obstruct officers of the Commission from carrying out their lawful duties.
Section 38(2)(a(b) of the EFCC Establishment Act makes it an offence to prevent officers of the Commission from carrying out their lawful duties. Culprits risk a jail term of not less than five years.
The warning , the EFCC said, became necessary against the background of the increasing tendency by persons and groups under investigation by the Commission to take the laws into their hands by recruiting thugs to obstruct lawful operations of the EFCC.
On several occasions, the anti graft agency said, operatives of the Commission have had to exercise utmost restraint in the face of such provocation to avoid a breakdown of law and order.
Some unknown gunmen have kidnapped Joshua Rogers, the ChannelsTV reporter in Port-Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.
Politics Nigeria learnt that Rogers was picked up close to his residence at Rumuosi in Port Harcourt and to an unknown destination by the gunmen around 9pm on Thursday, April 11.
The reporter was driving his official ChannelsTV branded car when the hoodlums accosted, pointed a gun at him and took him away in the same vehicle.
Rogers was said to be returning from his official assignment in Government House after a trip to Andoni for a government event when the incident happened.
Already, the gunmen were said to have contacted his wife and demanded a N30million ransom for bis release.
His cameraman confirmed the incident and appealed to his abductors to set him free unconditionally.
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