15th March, 2016
The Police in Ilorin have waded into the dispute between the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and members of the Kwara State Branch of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).
The Head of Operations of the DPR office in Ilorin, Mr Ibitayo Oyedele, made the disclosure in an interview with NAN on Tuesday in Ilorin, the state capital.
He said that the Controller of the DPR in the state, Mr Philips Salvation, had petitioned the police and the DSS over an alleged manhandling of some DPR workers by IPMAN members.
According to him, the police have invited some officers of IPMAN for questioning on the development.
NAN recalls that both DPR and IPMAN members have been at loggerhead since 2015 when the DPR controller refused to allow them to sell fuel above the approved pump price of N86.50.
Oyedele told NAN that it was not true that independent marketers bought their fuel at higher prices from private depots.
The head of operations said that fuel sold by the independent marketers were imported by NNPC and sold to them at the official price.
He also said that independent marketers who bought fuel from distant PPMC depots were paid for bridging.
“It is not correct that marketers lift petrol at higher prices from distant depots, every extra expenses incurred by marketers is defrayed by the Federal Government,” he said.
Oyedele said that because the controller refused to shift grounds and allow the marketers to sell at exorbitant prices, they had refused to sell their products to the public.
According to him, this is the main cause of the acute fuel scarcity in Kwara, particularly in Ilorin, the capital.
Oyedele alleged that a factional leader of IPMAN, Mr Olanrewaju Okanlawon, had led some members of the body to assault DPR officials, who had come to seal off his filling station at Ajase Ipo Road, Ilorin.
Efforts to get the reaction of the IPMN chief on the matter yielded no dividend as his mobile phone was switched off.