The Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has urged the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to increase fuel allocation to its members to reduce queues in filling stations.

IPMAN national vice president, Hammed Fasola, said in an interview with journalists in Ibadan on Friday that the fuel scarcity was due to low allocation.

According to him, if members of IPMAN get the product directly from NNPC, the price per litre will be affordable for Nigerians and the queues will reduce.

He says its members sell petrol at a higher price from other major marketers or depot owners because they get the product exorbitantly from third parties.

According to him, the association has presented its position on PMS allocation to NNPC, calling on it to allocate as much as 50 per cent as it used to be in the past.

“It is not that we don’t get at all, we are getting a little, and when you compare our number in this sector; our members own 80 per cent of the filling stations.

“In the past, it was not like this.

“We had a share of 50 per cent but recently, things have changed, and we are trying to talk to the authorities, especially the NNPC that they have to correct that abnormality.

“We are still trying to address the issue. This is why the independent marketers are selling at a higher price, which is not good for our image,” Mr Fasola said.

He stated that its members were being pushed to private depot owners “And we don’t find it palatable.

“We go there sometimes, and they will sell at N720 per litre, and in their own stations, they are selling N620 or N650 per litre; you can see the disparity and the public will not understand.

“This is why we are trying to educate the people that we are not shrewd businesspeople who want to milk Nigerians.

“Some filling stations have closed for business because they can’t cope – this is the situation we found ourselves in; until the government corrects it and everybody is on the same level.

“We are appealing to NNPC to correct this, so we can get our product directly as we used to do; that will be good for everybody,” he said.

On the purported increase in PMS pump price by some Nigerians, Mr Fasola said its association had not received any information to that effect.

“We should take it as fake news,” he said.

(NAN)