KANO The Kano branch of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has embarked on a indefinite strike action in support of the earlier threat made by the Northern zone of the association barely two weeks ago after the emergency meeting held in the state. In what seems like a coup, the entire filling stations in the state metropolis closed shop yesterday evening while the black marketers took advantage of the impending strike, selling the fuel at very exorbitant rate while over 60 per cent of both commercial and private cars disappeared from the streets because of fuel scarcity.
The independent and major marketers in Kano have since the pronouncement of the reduction of pump prices of petroleum products by President Obasanjo refused to comply, a situation which had caused scarcity of the products in the state even before the strike action by IPMAN.
Efforts to the get the officials of the association speak on the issue failed as they said only the northern executives can comment on the matter because the decision was not taken by only Kano IPMAN members alone. It would be recalled that Northern IPMAN met in Kano and issued a communique asking the Federal Government to reverse the withdrawal of the N1.00 bridging allowance recently removed.
The northern IPMAN members argued that the removal of the N1.00 will means an increment of N8.00 per litre to all northern consumers of petroleum products while those in other parts of the country buy much lesser. IPMAN complained that the northern members of the association have been dependent on the bridging of transportation of petroleum products over the years due to the inconsistent supply of the products from the NNPC depot in the north.
They also wondered why the Federal Government should stop bridging allowance to transporters which was established by a decree, when the petroleum equalization fund that was established by decree 9 of 1975 as amended by decree 32 of 1989 has not been changed.
Already the price of a four litre gallon of kerosene which used to be sold between N320 and 360 now sells for N800-N1000 depending on the location, while the prices for transportation both on commercial motor bikes and buses varies according to the distances between the range of N30-150 per drop.
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