IPMAN Wants Probe Of Activities At Benin Depot.

For alleged rampant extortion of petroleum marketers, some members of the Benin Zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have sent a petition to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) against the management of the depot.
They also want the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the payment of N350, 000 per truck before it is allowed to load petroleum products from the depot.

For alleged rampant extortion of petroleum marketers, some members of the Benin Zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have sent a petition to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) against the management of the depot.
They also want the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to probe the payment of N350, 000 per truck before it is allowed to load petroleum products from the depot.
However there is an interim injunction restraining another faction of the leadership from functioning as the executive members of the association in the depot.
The petition signed by the  Co solicitor to the marketers, K. O. Obamogie,  said the “illegal” management of the depot has also abandoned the guidelines contained in the sales manual of PPMC (Pipelines and Products Marketing Company), which they said provided for allocation of products to marketers “strictly on schedule.”
They said: “Allocation of products is now shrouded in secrecy and publication of scheduling list of marketers has stopped at the Benin Depot. The net effect of this sad development is that marketers no longer know when they are to load products”.
The group therefore called for the investigation of the “unwholesome activities” of the depot management. The marketers condemned in strong terms, the collection of N350,000 per truck for loading, which they said was initially put at N200,000 last year, which they also frowned at.
The angry marketers said they had late last year petitioned the management of the depot where they criticised the setting up of a committee on product pipeline right of way, which they said was illegal and was as a way of extorting money from them.
“It is germane to stress that it is the responsibility of the Federal Government to secure the pipelines. To this end, the government has even constituted a Task Force charged with the responsibility of protecting and securing petroleum pipelines in the country. Government’s arrangement did not contemplate what you have now put in place at the Benin Depot”.
Besides the EFCC and the Director, State Security Services (SSS), the marketers also copied the managing director, PPMC, chairman, Senate Committee on Downstream Petroleum, the House of Representatives counterpart, the chairman, Independent Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Area Manager, NNPC/PPMC, Warri.
The Benin IPMAN has been enmeshed in crisis and this led to a faction obtaining an interim injunction in suit number FHC/B/CS/213/2010 that restrained some elected leaders of the other faction from functioning as the Benin Depot Executive Committee pending the determination of the motion on notice filed in the suit.