Labour, marketers allege poor fuel supply to South-East
From Lawrence Njoku,
Enugu
WORKERS and fuel dealers in the South-East have decried the cut in daily petroleum products' allocation to the region from 13,600 to 9,080 litres.
The workers, under the umbrella of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Independent Petroleum Marketers' Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), met recently in Enugu to address the scarcity and rising prices of the products in the region.
In a statement after the meeting, the stakeholders lamented that the geo-political zone gets the least allocation of fuel in the country.
The zone comprises Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states.
The groups, therefore, appealed to the Federal Government to ensure that enough fuel is supplied to the zone.
Major marketers in the zone sell petrol for N55 while independent dealers charge N65 per litre. Most of the filling stations do not even have the products to dispense.
Worried by the high prices, the NLC in Enugu had a fortnight ago given the marketers an ultimatum to revert to the approved prices to avert a face-off with the workers.
The marketers in their reaction, explained that they were not getting sufficient allocation from the Emene Depot, also in Enugu.
In their resolutions, the unions asked the government to ensure that each marketer in the zone gets between 30,000 and 33,000 litres per truck.
They said: "The Port Harcourt depot with less than 700 independent marketers enjoys a daily supply of four to six million litres of premium motor spirit (PMS) (Petrol); diesel (two-three million litres), and kerosene (two-three million litres. The Calabar depot with less than 200 independent marketers is allocated 1.8 to two litres of petrol, one to 1.5 million litres of diesel and one to 1.5 million litres of kerosene.
"In contrast, Aba depot with about 800 independent marketers is allocated a paltry daily supply of 600,000 to one million litres of petrol each day, 300,000 to 600,000 litres of diesel and same for kerosene per day. Enugu depot suffers the same fate as Aba.
"Out of the 21 Pipeline and Products Marketing Company (PPMC) depots in Nigeria, only the two depots located in the South-East Zone lift 9,080 and 13,620 litres of the products per truck. In contrast, the other 19 depots are loaded with 30,00 and 33,000 litres of the products per truck", he said.
The zone, therefore, requested that marketers in the South-East be given equal treatment to curb the rising prices of the products.
