Protracted leadership rift in the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) is responsible in part for the scarcity of fuel which has led to a boom in underground channels, hikes in pump price and transport fares, with ripple effects in food prices.
IPMAN has long split into two factions, one led by Lawson Obasi, the other by Chinedu Okoronkwo. Both are locked in a battle for legitimacy.
Fight over fuel loot
The fight is essentially over the sharing of the spoils of office, particularly fuel subsidy, which a member of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN) has warned is unsustainable.
The Obasi faction alleged that the executive secretary of the Pipelines Products and Marketing Company (PPMC) created the division so that he would not be asked to account for kerosene subsidy payments he mismanaged.
Police involvement
The crisis began to escalate three weeks ago when the two factions clashed at plot 2201, Katamkpe District, Cadastral Zone B07, Abuja where the Okoronkwo faction was having a meeting.
Obasi loyalists stormed the venue with about 17 police officers sent by the assistant inspector general of police (AIG) in charge of Wuse Zone 7, Abuja, to invite Okoronkwo to answer an alleged case of impersonation against him.
Police have allegedly invited him since last year based on a complaint from Obasi but he has not honoured the invitation.
However, members of the Obasi faction were overpowered by Okoronkwo’s henchmen who resisted his arrest.
IPMAN factional National Secretary, Danladi Pasali, said a court order issued last year was in favour of his faction, therefore, there is no case of impersonation as alleged by the Obasi group.
“We have a court injunction that recognises that this is the authentic leadership of IPMAN. That is the reason they are coming here. It is the same effort they made here the other time when they came with touts, over 100 of them, to our national secretariat in Asokoro.
“They raided the place. We had property and money inside, they stole them. They looted the place. Now the matter is before a court which has issued a warrant of arrest against them,” Pasali alleged.
He said his faction was surprised that the Obasi group came to attack them at the meeting.
National Vice Chairman of the Okoronkwo faction, Abdukadir Shetima, added that Obasi loyalists became infuriated when they discovered that nearly all IPMAN leaders in the 36 states and Abuja are with his faction.
“The other group suddenly found out that they are standing alone. So they came here to attack us,” he said.
But Chief of Staff to the Obasi faction, who gave his name simply as Ukadike, insisted that the national secretariat at 41 Joshua Nkomo Street, Asokoro, had reported Okoronkwo’s alleged impersonation to the police, and the AIG sent officers to effect his arrest.
He said he accompanied the policemen to show them where the group was operating from, as well as help identify Okoronkwo.
“We went to invite them to the meeting with the AIG based on his directives, because the AIG is investigating the case of impersonation against [Okoronkwo], but he rather ordered his boys to deal with us,” Ukadike said.
Counter claims to leadership
The Obasi faction claimed that it got a court injunction from a Port Harcourt High Court which recognises it as the genuine IPMAN.
The Okoronkwo faction claimed it got a counter injunction from an Abuja High Court which confirms it as the authentic IPMAN.
Solution to fuel scarcity
A member of MOMAN, who did not want his name in print, said: “The solution to fuel scarcity is removal of fuel subsidy and allowing everyone who is able to import the product and sell at any price he or she considers profitable.
“It is not likely that the government will be able to mop up funds and defray the cost of our members without leaving us waiting and sweating, and banks manipulating us back and forth.
“Even then, the government’s source of revenue, crude lifting, is uncertain these days.”
He reiterated that the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan recently released N215 fuel subsidy to importers to prevent the incoming government from inheriting a fuel crisis, but this does not mean that subsidy is sustainable.
