After serial failure to supply products to them as promised, marketers of petroleum products have accused owners of petroleum tank farms who are also importers of breach of contract.
The marketers accused some of the tank farms operators in Lagos of deliberately collecting huge sum of money from them with the promise to supply petroleum products which are not available.
The marketers alleged that some of the tank farms have designed a process of illegal ticketing and collecting money in advance from unsuspecting marketers and buyers for unavailable petroleum products
They collect the money and lodge them in the banks to attract interest which they use for other purposes, they alleged.
Some of the embittered marketers fingered Zenon oil and gas as most guilty. Other tank farms that have been fingered are MRS oil and Rahamanniya oil and gas.
According to the marketers, sometimes it takes more than two months before they can eventually receive the products which had already been paid for and that in some cases they are mandated to pay the variation in prices, because the delay causes variation in prices by the time the products finally arrives.
Speaking under anonymity, one marketer told our correspondent that it is an old habit among tank farm operators and that “it is a common habit among the depot operators; it is mostly perpetuated by the depot managers so that our money will be yielding interests for them in the bank. Few months ago, I paid for two trucks of DPK with Zenon oil at the rate of N70 per litre and I did not get my product until several months later when I finally loaded at N100 per litre even though, I was not asked to pay the difference, yet I could have used the money somewhere else not to talk of the embarrassment is costs you” he said.
Another marketer told our correspondent that a relative of his had to wait for six months before he was finally given the products paid for, saying that “the depot managers know that the volume they have is not sufficient, yet they will keep collecting money from us, this is why you see the drivers parked at the road side because some of them come from outside of Lagos, these operators have refused to say the truth to the government, they are the cause of congestion”.
However, one Mr. Olanife Adeoye who is also a marketer told Shipping Position Weekly that the illegal act has eased especially since Zenon oil has started using the facilities belonging to Ibeto group to store its products.
According to him, another depot that has done the same thing is AP which due to the bad traffic around its Ijora location now uses the facilities of Folawiyo oil in order to ensure easy access to its product.
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