IPMAN seeks police protection, begins 24-hour sale of fuel

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has appealed to the Inspector-General of Police to provide adequate protection for its members, to enable them to sell fuel for 24 hours.

Chinedu Okoronkwo, IPMAN’s President, made the appeal on Monday in Abuja.

Okoronkwo said the appeal had become necessary following the unions directive to its members to sell fuel for 24 hours to clear the queues that had persisted across the country.

The president, who expressed concern over the queues, said the measure was to ease the scarcity and make the product available to motorists.

The Vice President IPMAN, Abubakar Magandi, in a separate interview, said queues persisted in most of the filling stations because most depots did not have the product.

Magandi said the problem of loading slowed down the process of lifting the products, causing the queues to persist.

He also refuted the allegation that members were hoarding the product to hike the price.