The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) said it members immediately increased the pump price from N500 to over N617 to stay in business.
IPMAN President, Chinedu Okoronkwo who spoke to newsmen today, said petrol marketers need to sell their old stocks at the new price to remain in business.
Okonkwo said many IPMAN members have gone out of business due to the removal of subsidy on petrol as they were unable to raise money to load from depots and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.
Okoronkwo said with the price adjustment by the NNPCL, independent marketers raised their prices at retail outlets to match the reality of the times.
He said, “You need to be in business. If you go back, you will go and buy at a new price. Assuming you are selling N520, then there is a sudden change from where you are getting it, you have to still be in business.
“Some of my members have gotten to the level of putting products in their tankers, all of a sudden, there was an information that the price has changed. They didn’t load them again. Some are even battling now to see how they can load on that old price and now the new price.”
Okoronkwo said the timing of the price increment was not the issue but the government must work on how to mitigate the effect of the price adjustment and ease the pressure on the dollar.
Meanwhile, a former President of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (PENGASSAN), Peter Esele, faulted the IPMAN president, as he said petrol marketers are taking advantage of the situation to make extra profit.
According to Esele, it is only morally right that marketers sell their old stocks for the old price.
