N165 per litre of petrol no longer realistic – IPMAN

Chinedu Okoronkwo, the president of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), has said the N165 per litre of petrol is ‘unrealistic’.

He said this in an interview he had with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday.

Okonkwo said marketers and transporters find it challenging to take products to other parts of the country from the depots.

“The huge amount spent running the diesel trucks to transport fuel is very discouraging because we are running at a loss,” the IPMAN president said.

According to him, the resurging queues at petrol stations, especially in Abuja is due to the cost of transporting the product from depots in Lagos to other parts of the country.

“The current N165 per litre pump price for PMS cannot fit into the present realities without the pricing template being reviewed. We appeal to the government to look into the situation by either reviewing the freight rate or providing palliatives to all marketers to restore normalcy to distribution,” he explained.

“The palliative can be making diesel accessible for marketers at discounted rates so that we can easily transport products across the country.”

Okoronkwo commended the government for the bridging claims paid so far to marketers, adding that efforts should be made to clear the outstanding amounts.

(NAN)