The federal government has disclosed that it paid oil marketers a total of N103.03 billion in the past eight months as bridging cost for the transportation of petrol across the country.The government’s clarification came two days after the Northern Forum of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, threatened to withdraw their services citing huge debts owed to its members by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, (NMDPRA).
Recall that IPMAN had on Monday, announced the commencement of 3-day withdrawal of services as warning strike by their members.It also declared withdrawal of their long heavy duty vehicles from the nine depot’s in the 19 Northern states of the country following failure of the NMDPRA to settle their over N70 billion outstanding bridging claims despite all pleas and lobbies
But NMDPRA in a statement in Abuja explained that the payment of bridging claims was a continuous process, disclosing that a meeting has been held with the group to resolve the issue.“Previous engagements and today’s meeting addressed issues regarding bridging claims and other matters. The Authority would like to reiterate that payment of bridging claims is an ongoing process and payments are disbursed as it is received from Marketers. “It should be noted that The Authority has disbursed a total of N103,037,183,922.91 Naira between December 2021 to August 2022.
“Following the extensive deliberations between the parties, The Authority further commits to fast-track the settlement of all outstanding claims when received from marketers after due verification and reconciliation. NIPMF has agreed to work with the NMDPRA to ensure free flow of petroleum products nationwide”, it added.The spokesman of the forum, who is also the financial secretary of IPMAN, Alhaji Abdulkadir Mustapha, at a press conference held at the IPMAN Maiduguri office had said:” We the members of IPMAN wish to clarify the air on our resolution to embark on three days withdrawal of services, as a warning strike action.
“For years, we have been following up the matter and lobbying the management of the NMDPRA regarding our unsettled bridging claims button.”He had stated that a little payment was made less than five per cent of the total debts owed by the authority, adding that, the worst of it all, is that no payment was made for the year 2022 while claims for 2019, 2020 and 2021 are still unpaid.“Though, some few payments has been made which is lesser than five per cent of our claims, but greater part of the claims had not been settled. Moreso, no payment had been made with regards to this year’s claim and year 2019/2021 still remain unpaid.
