Marketers open up on petrol supply ban in border communities as Dangote refinery moves to sell fuel

The nationwide prohibition on the supply of petroleum products in border regions has become a significant concern for fuel retailers.

In an interview with The PUNCH, Abubakar Maigandi, the National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, stated that the restriction has impacted the businesses of the association's members in the border regions.

He mentioned that, in 2019, the government informed IPMAN that, in addition to people who were transferring fuel subsidies to foreign nations, terrorists and outlaws were obtaining fuel supplies from filling stations along national borders.

This information served as the impetus for the prohibition as former President Muhammadu Buhari implemented a ban on delivering petroleum products to border villages in 2019.

The Nigeria Customs Service issued the directive forbidding filling stations within 20 kilometres of the borders from receiving or dispensing petroleum.

The purpose of the regulation was to stop smugglers from illegally diverting fuel subsidies to neighbouring nations.

However, Nigerians, including the National Assembly, have pleaded for the prohibition to be abolished since President Bola Tinubu removed the fuel subsidy in May 2023, but the present administration has not yet done so.

The ruling has impacted oil marketers' companies, indicating that their appeals to the federal government have not yet received the necessary attention.

The president of IPMAN said that the government policy had destroyed the marketers' investments, resulting in their loss of income.

He said: “We are not happy about the policy. But we didn’t talk much about it when the government said they wanted to reduce insecurity in the country, and they were suspecting that was the means through which bandits get fuel. As a patriotic Nigerian, immediately you hear that, you have no option but to listen to the government.

“But at the end of the day, we realised that those marketers have to be allowed to sell fuel in their filling stations because they already have the licence, and some of them have lost their businesses after losing huge amounts of money to construct filling stations,”

According to Surajudeen Bada, the chairman of the Oil and Gas Traders Association in Ogun State, the government's restriction on filling stations goes against what they first approved.

This occurred as indications have pointed out that the Dangote refinery may start selling petroleum products, particularly diesel, to regional distributors by next week.

This development is on the back of a report that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has recently resumed selling Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) directly to the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN).