IPMAN Denies Responsibility for Fuel Scarcity

IPMAN Denies Responsibility for Fuel Scarcity

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has debunked the claim by the Interim Management Secretary of the association, Mr. Lawson Ngoa, blaming the association for the current scarcity of petrol, insisting that Ngoa is not a member of IPMAN but an agent of the Ministry of Petroleum resources brought in to mediate in the internal crisis of the association.

Ngoa had last Monday exonerated the federal government of any blames associated with the current lingering fuel shortages across the country, clarifying that Nigerians should rather blame the prolonged leadership crisis that had rocked IPMAN as the cause of the crises.

But the National Operations Controller of IPMAN, who is also immediate past National Secretary of the association, Mr. Mike Osatuyi said in a statement last night that it was a pure defamation of IPMAN for Ngoa to say that IPMAN had accepted responsibility for the scarcity of petroleum products and that Nigerians should hold the association responsible for the scarcity.

According to Osatuyi “while the intervention of the Minister of state for Petroleum, Dr. Ibe Kachikwu in resolving the internal crisis in IPMAN is appreciated and commendable, the forefathers, past presidents, leaders of IPMAN and the general members of IPMAN nationwide will not allow Mr. Lawson Ngoa who is not a marketer less an IPMAN member to use IPMAN name as a shield to defend or protect a system failure of NNPC”.
“Crisis in IPMAN with government intervention is not new today. Previous government agencies had intervened in IPMAN crisis without blackmail from the agencies concerned right from the time of Alhaji Jarfau Paki, the then Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo on Petroleum Matters. Dr. Oluwole Oluleye, the former Executive Secretary of Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency (PPPRA), had intervened in IPMAN matter without blackmailing the association. Some former Managing Directors of PPMC had also intervened in IPMAN matter without destroying IPMAN’s name,” Osatuyi explained.