With less than a week to the Christmas celebrations, signs of a bleak celebration awaits Nigerians as petroleum marketers under the umbrella body of Northern Independent Petroleum forum are spitting fire and brimstone and threatening to embark on an industrial strike action over N50 billion bridging claim.
In a statement issued on Sunday in Kano by the forum’s chairman, Alhaji Musa Maikifi , he stressed that the federal government through the Petroleum Equalization Fund had reneged on their earlier promise to pay the N50 billion Bridging Claim for over nine months.
This, he stated may lead to the scarcity of the commodity in the North which may further speed up the dearth of businesses, adding that the majority of its members have run out of capital and could not buy and transport fuel to the region.
According to Maikfi all efforts to ensure that their money is paid to them had yielded no fruit, hence the strike.
“If this continues in this way so many of us will have to close down our fuel stations. This will add to the fuel scarcity in the region because the marketers have no capital.
“The Federal Government couldn’t settle our claims of over N50 billion. We met the authority involved and they promised to pay us but yet they haven’t.
“So, that is why we are here to plead with them to pay us our unsettled claims so that we can continue our business smoothly,” he lamented.
According to him, they formed the Northern Independent Petroleum Marketers Forum to always have one voice that will speak on their behalf, adding that the leadership crisis rocking the IPMAN has also added to their burden which their Forum is ready to address.
Alhaji Zarma Mustapha, said the bridging claims were supposed to have been paid within two weeks but for months now they are not settled, and that over 3000 marketers from the north are involved.
“One thing that will surprise you is that this money does not belong to the Government. It is generated from the consumers that purchased fuel from us marketers and the NNPC gathered the money and then pay us through PEF. But still they hold our money.
“Presently you can see that there is fuel scarcity here and there in the north, and if we enter January, February without our claims settled, I assure you that we can’t do it, we can’t do the business,” he said.
He urged President Muhammadu Buhari and the Minister of State for Petroleum to intervene into the matter to help them sustain their business.