The Executive Secretary of Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers
Association (DAPPMA), Olufemi Adewole, on Thursday said the Nigerian
National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) lied when it said members of the
association owed the government-owned oil firm N26.7bn.
According to Adewole, members of DAPPMA had, in the past one month,
paid over N90bn for petrol supply but had yet to receive any cargo from
the Petroleum Products Marketing Company, a subsidiary of NNPC.
The NNPC had earlier attacked DAPPMA over
a claim by the association that its members had no petrol in their
various tanks despite NNPC’s claims of importing millions of litres of
products.
NNPC also stated that DAPPMA members owe it the sum of N26.7bn for
products received from the corporation, adding that the statement
credited to the association on the fuel supply situation, especially
Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) was “very unfortunate.”
But in his reply to NNPC’s claims, Adewole, via a statement issued to
journalists, said it was unfortunate for the national oil firm to
attack and accuse marketers falsely.
He said, “It is an undisputable fact that DAPPMA members have paid
for petrol supply (with bank funds) for over one month, the value of
which is in excess of N90bn, yet PPMC/NNPC had no cargo to allocate to
them.
“As such, how can we be held responsible for hoarding?
“PPMC/NNPC does not transact business with DAPPMA members on credit,
hence we are not aware of any indebtedness to PPMC/NNPC by our members.
“We again reject any attempt to blame marketers for the shortfall in
supply, as it is not our making since NNPC has been the sole importer
since October 2017.”
Adewole said marketers had continued to sacrifice to keep the country
wet with fuel despite over N600bn debt owed DAPPMA members and over
N800bn owed marketers as a whole by the Federal Government.
He said, “The essence of our initial press release was to shed light
on salient issues surrounding the shortfall in current petrol supply
which is presently solely handled by the NNPC. It was not an attempt to
join issues with PPMC/NNPC with whom we are partners.
“NNPC’s view of our press release stating our side of the story and
seeking to defend marketers for the very first time against the
unwarranted accusations of hoarding and profiteering is rather
unfortunate.”
The association, however, assured Nigerians, irrespective of NNPC’s
stance, that all possible steps were being taken to cooperate with
PPMC/NNPC to eliminate the fuel queues nationwide within the next few
days.