Filling station operators in Imo State under the aegis of Association of Petroleum Marketers (APM) have appealed to state governors in the South East zone to wade into the lingering fuel scarcity in the region.
They said that based on the prevailing conditions in the state, it had become practically impossible for them to sell petrol at the official pump price of N86.50.
The fuel dealers accused the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) of refusing to allocate enough petrol products to them under its Special Petroleum Intervention Quota.
According to the marketers, their only sure sources of the product are private tank farms which sell to them above the official pump price.
In an interview with The AUTHORITY in Owerri, the state Chairman of the association, Chief Christopher Amadi, said that the low allocation being received by the state was equally shared with other south-eastern states of Abia, Enugu, Ebonyi and Anambra, a development, he lamented, had compounded fuel scarcity in the zone.
“While other states receive more than 10 million litres under the NNPC petrol intervention quota, no state in the south-east gets above one to two million litres, and this low allocation is the reason why petrol scarcity in the area seem different,” Amadi noted.
“If NNPC increases quantity of petrol to Imo, and other states in the south-east, marketers will sell at government control price,” he stated.
Amadi appealed to South East Governors to assist Petroleum Marketers and look into the low allocation of petrol allocated to states in the zone.
Most filling stations in Imo sell a litre of petrol between N140 and N150 as against the official pump price of N86.50. (The Authority)
