IPMAN To Shutdown 30,000 Filling Stations Over N200bn Debt.

Oil dealers under the aegis of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, says it would shut down the 30,000 stations operated by IPMAN members across the country if the Federal Government fails to pay the N200bn that is being owed marketers.

IPMAN specifically said the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, an agency of the Federal Government, had refused to clear the debt, which had continued to accrue since September 2022.

It disclosed this in a communique issued in Abuja by the Chairman of IPMAN Depot Chairmen Forum, Yahaya Alhassan, over the non-payment of marketers’ bridging claims. IPMAN controls over 30,000 filling stations in Nigeria, while, Bridging claims are payments made by the government to oil marketers for the transportation of petroleum products loaded from depots to various states across the country.

Alhassan said, the consequences of the failure by NMDPRA to pay the N200bn “will be terrible, as every marketer’s outlet across Nigeria, from the North to the South, and from the East to the West, will be shut down.”

The IPMAN official pointed out that, at a stakeholders meeting held on February 20, 2024, with the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, and the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, the Chief Executive of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, was mandated by Lokpobiri to clear the entire debt in 40 days.