“IPMAN Warns of Fuel Supply Disruption in Ogun Due to Task Force Activities”
The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has threatened to stop petroleum product supplies to Ogun State due to ongoing intimidation by “an illegal Task Force” set up by the state government to disrupt its members’ businesses statewide
The new IPMAN state chairman in Mosimi Depot, Chief Salimon Ajayi, made the threat yesterday in Abeokuta, the state capital, while speaking with journalists about the state of IPMAN’s businesses across Ogun, particularly the incessant harassment of their staff statewide.
Ajayi explained that the Prince Dapo Abiodun-led administration in the state had, on November 6, 2024, inaugurated a Task Force that has been visiting his members’ fueling stations to demand measuring cans and monetary inducements, in addition to various forms of harassment of IPMAN personnel across Ogun.
Ajayi stated that the inauguration of the Task Force, which has one Adeyemi Badejo as its chairman, along with operatives of the Nigeria Police Force, personnel of the state-owned Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE), and the state-owned television broadcast station, contradicts the provisions of the law as contained in Sections 48 and 309 of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
Issuing a stern warning to the appropriate government authority in the state, IPMAN emphatically declared that its members would be shutting down operations in Ogun State effective Monday, November 18, 2024, should the Ogun State government’s Task Force “continue disturbing our members, and no petroleum product-laden trucks will be allowed to enter Ogun State.
“It is unfortunate that IPMAN members are always the target when government policies negatively impact the public. I am of the opinion that the task force is unnecessary and illegal. Sections 48 and 309 of the Petroleum Industry Act, 2021, forbid the establishment of such a task force.
“What the Ogun state government intends to achieve is being approached illegally and must be vehemently resisted.”
It was, however, gathered that IPMAN Mosimi Depot has also reported the matter to the state’s field office of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) through a letter dated November 11, 2024, in which the association expressed its displeasure over the illegal constitution of the Task Force.
In the letter, a copy of which was made available to newsmen in Abeokuta, IPMAN clearly stated that all its members are law-abiding citizens, who would neither venture into any illegality in the course of conducting their legitimate business nor succumb to any intimidation from state government agents.
The letter reads in part: “We write to inform your esteemed office of a new Task Force recently set up by the Ogun State government. The team has been visiting our petroleum dispensing stations, forcefully requesting measuring cans to measure the petroleum products, harassing our staff, and demanding money.”
“We hereby bring to your notice all these fraudulent acts being perpetrated by the Task Force in all our fueling dispensing stations across the state. All our members are law-abiding citizens, who conduct their legitimate businesses in accordance with the law governing them.”
Ajayi, however, appealed to residents and members of the Ogun State business community to hold the state government accountable for any inconveniences that may arise should the state governor, Abiodun, fail to disband the Task Force between now and the night of Sunday, November 17, 2024.
