• Abia accuses PHEDC, Indorama of complicity
A blame game mixed with political manipulation have combined to deprive fuel supply to the depot in Osisioma, Aba, raising pump price and fares, with ripple effects in the economies of Abia and neighbouring states.
Andrew Yakubu
Both the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) and the Petroleum Products Marketing Company (PPMC) had justified the closure of the depot for seven years with incessant vandalisation of the Port Harcourt-Aba pipeline.
But the re-opening of the depot has brought little benefit.
Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) Aba branch Public Relations Officer, Chigozie Amazu, told TheNiche that the high pump price of fuel in Abia is the result of lack of supply to the depot.
He said there has been no fuel in the depot for two weeks but the NNPC is doing its best to supply it, and once that happens pump price will return to normal.
“It is a case of demand and supply. As we don’t have it here, many petroleum marketers go as far as Calabar, Warri, and Lagos to source for the product.
“When they source it from a far place the price will increase because the expenses incurred in transportation and loading is much higher than what NNPC would charge if they got the product here,” Amazu explained.
Pump price in Aba ranges between N110 and N130 per litre, instead of the official N97.
Abia State Petroleum and Solid Minerals Commissioner, Don Ubani, accused the Port Harcourt Electric Distribution Company (PHEDC) and Indorama Eleme Petrochemical of conspiring to prevent supply to the depot in Aba.
He alleged in Umuahia that the efforts of the federal and state governments to revive the depot are being thwarted by the two companies.
Ubani recalled that the depot was resuscitated by Abuja and the state government to make petroleum products available and affordable in the South East, but expressed regret that the facility is being sabotaged for political reasons.
He said the depot has not been supplied because of constant power failure at the refinery in Port Harcourt.
Indorama is supposed to supply power to PHEDC to pump products to Aba, but Ubani disclosed that the two companies are trading blames and finding it difficult to co-ordinate their activities, to the detriment of consumers in the zone.
His words: “We feel that it is absolutely necessary to draw the attention of the federal government and the relevant authorities to find out from both PHEDC and Indorama why they should embark on acts of economic sabotage against Abia State and its people.
“The acts of the two companies have wrecked a lot of frustration, marginalisation and deprivation against consumers in Abia State and by so doing, rendering the Aba depot of the NNPC almost completely redundant and irrelevant.”
State IPMAN Public Relations Officer and Aba Depot Reactivation Committee Chairman, Simple Nwankpa, said they do not want to go back to the dark days when marketers bought products from tank farms at exorbitant prices.
“Indorama will say that they do not have enough energy to pump petroleum products, while PHEDC will say that Indorama has not sold energy to it to pump products to their Aba depot,” he stated, echoing the blame game cited by Ubani.
Nwankpa reiterated that once pump price goes up, the prices of other goods and services increase and people suffer.
When contacted, Indorama absolved itself of complicity, saying it will not do anything to undermine fuel distribution.
Its spokesman, Jossy Nkwocha, said the company has explained to the Abia State goverment that the fragile infrastructure of PHEDC makes it difficult to transmit excess power supplied by Indorama.
TheNiche had learnt earlier that Indorama supplies its excess power to PHEDC, which sells to the Port Harcourt Refinary and PPMC.
“We are not to blame at all,” Nkwocha reiterated.
