Northern petroleum marketers shut down NNPC depot, declare warning strike over bridging claim

Fresh fuel scarcity looming in Kano and neighbouring states as the Northern Independent Petroleum Marketers Forum (NIPMF) on Monday declared three days warning strike over their outstanding bridging payment.

Besides, the marketers shutdown the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, Kano depot, obstructing movement of tankers at the depot.

Declaring the warning strike at Kano deport, Chairman of the forum, Alh. Musa Yahaya, said members would withdraw their services across 9 depots and 19 Northern states for the next three days.

The independent marketer claimed that Nigeria Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), a subsidiary of NNPC, suspended their bridging cost in the last nine months for no just reason.

He insist that members would not hesitate to withdraw their services indefinitely based on failure of government to offset over N500 billion outstanding payment.

Although the Federal Government in February 2022 claimed N22.7 billion bridging outstanding payment was made to marketers, Alh. Maikifi debunked the claim, insisting the last instalment received from NMDPRA was in December, 2021.

Maikifi expressed worries that several marketers are surviving on liabilities to remain in business while billions of naira are being withheld by the Federal Government.

Apart from the claims, Maikif lamented that marketers spend not less than a billion naira on diesel to fuel a truck that transport petroleum products from Lagos to Kano, amidst security risks and bad road networks.

“As I speak with you, we have shutdown all the nine depots in Northern part of the country. I’m talking about Suleja, Minna, Jos, Yola, Gombe, Maiduguri, Kaduna refinery, Gusau and of cause here in Kano. We are stopping operation at the depots and withdraw our service.

“Our concern majorly is the total negligence of government to settling our bridging claims running into N500billion on daily basis and still counting. Our members are almost running on bank liability. We are spending not less than one million naira on diesel to fuel our truck that would transport petroleum products from Lagos to Kano.

“Bad roads, security risk, high cost of spare parts and cost of running business are overwhelming due to bad economy.

Members have not received their claims in the last nine months and this is telling seriously on our investment. We would sacrifice for three days and would not hesitate to embark on full blown strike if government continue to neglect our claims,” Maikifi noted.