Petroleum marketers have raised a renewed concern over alleged nepotism and tribalism by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) in the distribution of petroleum products to various petroleum tank farms in Apapa, Lagos.
This is even as the Group General Manager Public Affairs Division of NNPC; Mr. Ndu Ughamadu told Shipping Position Daily exclusively last week that the allegations are baseless and unfounded. He said that some of petroleum tank farms are given products but they refuse to pay for the product.
In a chat with our correspondent in Apapa last week, Mr. Onward Onwundiwe at Techno Oil Depot around Kirikiri axis of Apapa lamented that some marketers from northern origin; Rahamanniyya Tank farm and A.A Rano are most favored in terms of product allocation.
Onwundiwe alleged that the northerners are so favored because they belong to the ruling political party, All Progressive Congress (APC)
He charged the Federal Government in 2019 to ensure a level playing ground for all marketers and to come up with fair sharing and fair dealing devoid of nepotism and tribalism in product allocation.
“For example, AA Rano was nobody in the oil sector as far as we know, we knew when he started as a middle man in the job. Seven years ago, he was just a buyer and nobody know him, but it happened that when Rahamanniyya started operations, he was among the people that came from De Jones and put in their product at Rahammanniyya, but along the line, somebody was backing him up and the rest is history”
“Right now, AA Rano is the highest petroleum product depot that sells more than any other tank farm owner just like Rahamanniyya, what you cannot get easily over here; you would get it over there because of their influence”.
“We are hopeful that in this year, government will come out with fair sharing and fair dealing with marketers, not in a partial way or with a kind of nepotism way of doing things”
The downstream stakeholder further alleged that there is partiality in the activities of the NNPC, saying that even after some marketers have paid to receive product, the commodity is not given to them. He said that other depots however have the product constantly because of their affiliations.
“The petroleum products are all imported because almost all our refineries are not working, the importation depends on government and whosoever they wish to give it to, but one person is selling than the others because we are no longer selling based on merit or whether you can pay, it is strictly pay-and-collect, but there are some depots that even after they have paid, they would not see the product while some would be buying and returning, there is partiality in the system” he lamented.
Investigations conducted round some of the tank farms in Apapa last week by our correspondent showed that very few of them have product to dispense.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that NNPC has been left to carry the fuels supply burden of the country since 2017 when marketers were said to have stopped fuel importation due to shortage of foreign exchange and increase in crude prices.
The marketers argued that the exchange rate and crude prices have made it unprofitable to import petrol and sell at N145 per litre.
In his response however, the NNPC spokesman told Shipping Position Daily that the NNPC does not involve in nepotism or tribalism in its distribution of products.
According to him, “PMS is given to any depot that applies as long as they can pay, some of which have been allocated but failed to pay due to lack of financial capacity”
“As for other products, allocations are made to all buyers who applied and who off-take PMS as complimentary product. As far as we know, there is no depot that has not received an allocation of such products even those that don't buy PMS unless such depot didn't apply or failed to pay when allocated. If they have never applied, then let them do so and see” he said
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