New IPMAN exco vows to end fuel scarcity
Nigeria offers to help set up road safety agency for S/Leone
The new executive of the Independent Petroleum Marketers of Nigeria (IPMAN) has vowed to end the current ‘artificial’ fuel scarcity across the country.
Speaking during its inaugural meeting and assumption of office in Abuja yesterday, IPMAN President, Chief Lawson Obasi said the days of dry pumps in filling stations were over.
He said the inauguration of the authentic executive have freed the industry from the grip of the cabal that “held it hostage in the last 14 years” through the diversion of products allocated for the various marketers which results in artificial scarcity.
Obasi pledged to support President Goodluck Jonathan’s reform of the downstream sector.
“We will ensure that products reach Nigerian Independent Petroleum Company (NIPCO) Ltd, our commercial arm. Wherever tank farms are located we will ensure our members get to those venues to ensure products availability,” he said.
A Federal High Court in Port Harcourt had on March 20 ruled that Aminu Abdulkadir had exhausted his two tenures of three-years each as national president of IPMAN and therefore ordered him to vacate the office in line with the constitution of the union.
Meanwhile a senior official of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) NUPENG has confirmed that the union planned to embark on strike on Monday over the IPMAN leadership crisis.
Comrade Benneth Korie told newsmen at the end of the IPMAN inauguration that NUPENG shelved the proposed industrial action following the decision of the Abdulkadir to step down. Nigeria is prepared to assist the government of Sierra Leone to set up a road safety agency like Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Corps Marshal of the commission Osita Chidoka has said.
Speaking when he paid a courtesy visit to the President of Republic of Sierra Leone, Dr Ernest Bai Koroma in Freetown, Chidoka said it was important to have a safe and accident-free road to protect lives of citizens.
The road safety boss who is also the president of the West African Road Safety Organisation (WARSO) urged other African countries to emulate Nigeria in the establishment of a road safety commission.
The Sierra Leonean President Koroma said it was only when the sub-regional roads are free and safe that trade and tourism could be boosted among member countries as envisaged by the ECOWAS’ Protocol on free movement of goods and persons within the sub-region.
He appreciated the road safety campaign going on in the region saying “our country is in full support of your road safety campaigns. And let me particularly thank Nigeria for its readiness to provide Sierra Leone with technical assistance that would enable us build a functional road safety agency like you have in the country.”