NUPENG, others insist on removal of subsidy

The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas workers (NUPENG) and Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) have backed the increasing demand for the removal of fuel subsidy.

NUPENG insisted that government could not continue to vote billions of naira annually to fund private businesses which, according to Achese Igwe, its president, is fraudulently transacted to the detriment of the economy.

He said the annual subsidy should be used to revive the decayed refineries while the incoming government should make effort to build new refineries.
“Scarcity of petroleum products in Nigeria will never stop until the country can refine enough for local consumption”, he noted.

NUPENG, however, made clarification about what has led to the stoppage of work by its members, which was part of the issue that led to fuel scarcity.
Achese Igwe told journalists in Lagos that the tanker drivers removed their trucks from the roads since the oil marketers claimed not having products. “NUPENG is not on strike. Government should pay the marketers,” said Igwe.

Also toeing the line of NUPENG, the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) said it has always supported the idea of subsidy removal and deregulation of the industry so that a level playing field would be created.

According to Olufemi Olawore, the executive secretary of MOMAN, if the industry is deregulated, Nigerians would have been saved all problems of petroleum scarcity.

On the resolution reached with the government to end the fuel crisis, he said that the agreement reached with the government was that MOMAN may not guarantee importation of fuel but that if Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) supplies its members they would push out to the public.

“We would not guarantee importation of PMS or petrol until we are settled the money government is owing us. No credit lines from the banks and as such there won’t be supply of petrol.”