BREAKING NEWS, Oil & Gas
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Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu has set up a 17-man committee to reconcile the warring factions of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria to help end the biting fuel crisis in the country
DETERMINED to end the persistent fuel scarcity in the country, Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu, minister of state for petroleum resources and group managing director of the NNPC, has brokered a deal to end the lingering crises within the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN.
The minister invited all stakeholders within the IPMAN hierarchy to his office at the NNPC Towers, Abuja, and raised a 14-man committee charged with the task of doing everything possible “to bring back peace to the association at the national, zonal and depot levels.”
According to him, as critical stakeholders in the downstream sector, the contribution of IPMAN is crucial in the drive to end the prevailing crisis in the fuel supply situation across the nation.
Kachikwu, who called on all members to see IPMAN as one indivisible entity, also charged them to work with relevant government agencies such as the NNPC, DPR and other stakeholders to ensure that the prevailing fuel scarcity “becomes a thing of the past as quickly as possible.”
Shortly after the successful deliberations, Danladi Pasali, national secretary of IPMAN, expressed their readiness to assist the federal government to bringing a lasting solution to the fuel situation in the country within the next two weeks as stated by Kachikwu at his meeting with the Senate Committee on Petroleum Downstream on Tuesday. The minister had assured the Senate Committee that the lingering fuel crisis will be over within the next two weeks.
Aligning IPMAN with this objective, Pasali stated thus: “In the spirit of reconciliation and patriotism, we have resolved to forget our differences and work together towards providing products to our various stations across the country in order to ease the hardship on Nigerians.
He added that IPMAN, which controls a massive chunk of the market share in the nation’s downstream sector, will mandate its stations to operate a 24-hour service in order to ease the hardship on Nigerians.
Also Augustine Erhabor, another top IPMAN executive, commended the minister for his efforts towards bringing lasting peace within the association, a development he described as “a new dawn in IPMAN.”
He said that IPMAN would set up teams to monitor products distribution and deliveries at all their outlets nationwide even as he assured that all their members would get their products at official ex-depot price so that they can sell at government approved price to Nigerians.
According to him, IPMAN will liaise with the NNPC management to facilitate the quick loading of about 7, 000 outstanding products tickets for onward dispensing into the hinterland across the country.
He called on members of the public to refrain from hoarding and panic buying, assuring that in no distant future, the fuel queues will vanish.
“All of us in IPMAN are united and I want to assure Nigerians that this unity will help us see the end of this prevailing situation’’, Erhabor said.
Members of the 14-man reconciliation committee set up by the minister are Danladi Pasali, Dibu Aderigbe, a lawyer, Abubakar Maigandi, Hemmed Fashola, Leo Nkememe, Chukwudi Fred Ezinwa and Ben Odjugo.
Others are Andrew Ashiga, Igwe Ezekwesili Maduaguna, Emma Ihedigbo, M. A. Shettima, Augustine Erhabor, I. Dunuje and Lawson Ngoa, according to a statement issued by Garba Deen Muhammed, group general manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Thursday, March 31.
— Mar 31, 2016 @ 18:10 GMT
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