Petroleum marketers in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State, have jacked up the pump price of premium motor spirit (petrol) from the approved official price of N160 to N200, just two days into the industrial strike embarked upon by the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association (PENGASSAN).
This is in spite of assurances by the management of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), that the disagreement between Federal Government and PENGASSAN, would not cause scarcity of petroleum products.
PENGASSAN is at loggerheads with the federal government over the implementation of the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information System (IPPIS).
Consequently, petroleum marketers in Aba, have jacked up their pump prices to N200 per litre, and this is despite the assurances of availability of products by the NNPC.
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BUSINESSDAY checks revealed also that some filling stations have resorted to selling products in the night to avoid reverting to Government approved prices, thereby causing an artificial scarcity in the area.
An independent marketer, who prefers anonymity, attributed the development to the strike embarked upon by PENGASSAN.
According to the source, marketers may find it difficult to load products from depots, if PENGASSAN continues with the strike. “We don’t know what will happen when we exhaust our stock”.
Goodluck Ibem, president general, Coalition of South-East Youth Leaders (COSEYL), while reacting to the development, urged the Petroleum Products Pricing Marketing Regulatory Agency(PPPRA) and other regulatory agencies to move into action and ensure that petrol is sold at the approved official pump price of N160, stressing that people are barely coping with the N160 approved price.
He stated that any other increase in pump price would further overstretch the people, which may lead to the death of so many people.
He, however, urged the Federal Government, through the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, to quickly resolve whatever differences it has with PENGASSAN to ensure normalcy returns in the system.
Mele Kyari, group managing director, NNPC, in a statement in Abuja, Tuesday, stated that the industrial action embarked upon by PENGASSAN would not lead to scarcity of petroleum products.
He stated that all fuel stations and petrol depots have enough stock of products to service consumers and are open for business.
While expressing hope that the industrial dispute would be settled amicably, Kyari assured Nigerians that the corporation currently has a stock of over 2.9 billion litres of petrol to meet demands, especially during the yuletide.
According to him, the corporation is determined to make the 2020 end-of-year festivities free of fuel queues.
He noted that critical stakeholders in the petroleum products supply and distribution chain such as tanker drivers, depot owners and road transport owners have been mobilised to ensure a hitch-free season.
PENGASSAN had embarked on a three-day nationwide warning strike in June to protest what it described as members’ forcible enrolment into the “defective” IPPIS payment platform.
The oil industry workers said the strike was pursuant to the demands concerning their members working in federal government agencies, whose salaries were withheld since May, over alleged non-compliance with the federal government’s directive to all its agencies to enrol on the IPPIS payment platform.
