By Mike Adeyemi
The Chairman of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Kwara State branch, Alh. Okanlawon Olarewaju has said the persistent fuel scarcity will persist till December.
In a chat with Pilot Business on Tuesday, the IPMAN boss further said there is no immediate end in sight to the fuel situation in the country.
He, however, suggested that government should go back to the deregulation of the sector, adding that the policy will drive down the pump price of petroleum products.
“You can imagine in the 80s people queue at NITEL for telephone payment and services, but when the sector was totally overhauled and deregulated, it brings about competition, prices were reduced and the monopoly of NITEL was broken”.
“You can also imagine how much people bought SIM card during the advent of GSM in the country. As more players were allowed in the sector, the domineering power of MTN dropped. Today people buy SIM card at zero naira. This is what we mean by deregulation, and it has to be applied to the petroleum sector too,” he explained.
Speaking on the fuel situation in the state, Okanlawon disclosed that the supply of petrol has dropped drastically.
According to him, the state gets daily supply of 99,000 litres (3 trucks) instead of 825,000 litres (25 trucks) of fuel.
“Ever since the Government hands off activities of independence marketers in the supply of petroleum product in the country and given the NNPC the sole mandate to dispense the product to consumers, persistence scarcity became order of the day,” he further said.
He argued that the NNPC cannot handle supply for the whole country, urging government to allow private depots to be involved in the supply.
On the thriving activities of black marketers in the state, Okanlawon said the shortage in the supply of PMS has given rise to panic buying thus encouraging its sales by fuel hawkers.
“If the supply of the product is increase today, the activities of black marketers will surely abate,” he added.
The IPMAN chair then urged the general public to shun panic buying and cease from hoarding the products to avert disaster.
