The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) over unpaid bridging claims amounting to ₦100 billion, threatening to halt fuel distribution nationwide if their demands are not met.
Bridging claims cover the cost of transporting petrol from depots to designated zones, ensuring uniform pump prices across the country.
IPMAN had, in May 2022, accused the NMDPRA of owing its members over ₦500 billion in bridging claims.
The agency later pledged to clear the debts, but the issue remains unresolved.
By April 2024, the outstanding claims had risen to ₦200 billion, prompting IPMAN to threaten another service withdrawal.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, February 24, Gombe depot chairman of IPMAN, Abdul Ibrahim, accused the NMDPRA of failing to keep its promises despite assurances given in the presence of National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu.
“One year after our last demand requesting the payment of more than ₦100 billion owed to our members in bridging claims, the management of the NMDPRA has ignored our demand,” he stated.
He added that the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) also included bridging claims in their demands before suspending their strike.
According to Ibrahim, the NMDPRA had pledged to settle the claims within 40 days, but the timeline had long elapsed.
“Forty days have today become months with no hope of our payment,” he said.
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“The nine northern depots comprising Jos, Gusau, Suleja, Kaduna, Kano, Gombe, Yola, and Maiduguri depots have become completely grounded over this lingering debt.
“These debts being owed to us are monies belonging to marketers and which were deducted from us at the point of payments for products, in order to settle our bridging allowances.
“We have also continued to record deaths of our members, closure of their businesses, retrenchment of staff, and the take-over of their business premises by the commercial banks.
“These are all arising from this refusal of the NMDPRA to pay us our monies.
“As law-abiding Nigerians, we sincerely believe that we have given the NMDPRA enough time to pay us our monies in bulk and clear the bridging claims.
“But in view of their constant refusal, we have therefore decided to liaise with our sister organisations, the Petroleum Tankers Driver (PTD) and NARTO in order to take collective action in due course.
“As members of IPMAN, it is important to state that we also own sizeable numbers of the PTD, and we may be forced to withdraw our tankers from loading petroleum products.”
Ibrahim also accused the NMDPRA of imposing excessive levies on marketers, stating that these charges were not government-allocated but deductions from payments meant to settle bridging claims.
“NMDPRA has made things very difficult for us, as they have also subjected our members to paying bizarre levies whenever we deem it fit to renovate our petrol outlets,” he said.
“There are many distressing levies they have forced on us that are not only anti-developmental, but also unconstitutional, and we are demanding their immediate suspension.”
He called on President Bola Tinubu to intervene in the ongoing dispute, urging the government to resolve the lingering crisis between IPMAN and the NMDPRA.