Petroleum Product Depot Owners Shut Down

The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria on Sunday directed all its members to shut down operations at midnight of Sunday, December 9, 2018, until the Federal Government pays all the outstanding debt which it owed the marketers.

DAPPMAN’s declaration came less than 24 hours after the Federal Government announced that it would pay N236bn to oil marketers this Friday as the first tranche of the outstanding subsidy claims that it owed members of the depot owners as well as those of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria.

Responding to an enquiry sent by a Punch correspondent on whether the association would still proceed on strike despite the government’s latest promise, the Executive Secretary, DAPPMAN, Olufemi Adewole, replied, “Yes, we are proceeding, since we didn’t get the Federal Government’s assurances of receiving the funds which would help pay December salaries.”

He said the association took a bold step to stop the financial haemorrhage of its members by the painful disengagement of its loyal workforce after over three years of engaging the Federal Government in the efforts to secure the payment of all subsidy-induced debts owed marketers.

The association’s spokesperson stated that till date, the efforts “have not yielded the desired results.”