Independent Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has decried incessant attack and kidnap of its members.
It also lamented the deplorable road conditions nationwide, which it said was one of the major challenges of the association in ensuring uninterrupted supply of petroleum products to Nigerians.
Besides, it pleaded to the Federal Government to intensify efforts at repairing the affected roads.
The Chairman of IPMAN, Minna Depot, Comrade Adamu Ahmed Erena, stressed that many IPMAN members had been kidnapped, the trucks and petroleum products stolen or diverted by criminals along the routes because of bad roads.
Erena, who said that members were just managing to remain in business, appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari-led government to intervene in the deplorable road condition for ease of doing business.
According to him, “We have lost our members and almost on a daily bases; no fewer than N40 million go down the drain due to bad roads causing accidents while between 10 to 20 truck drivers are kidnapped on the line of business”.
Erena, who, however, absolved Niger State government of any blames restricting movement of articulated vehicles through state roads for 12 hours, between 10pm and 6am, said that the restriction was also affecting their movements as deliveries were in most cases delayed.
He said at the NNPC depot in Pago, near Minna, the state capital, that the predicament faced by IPMAN members in all the three major routes through the state hence their plea for the immediate intervention of the federal government.
“We are appealing to President Buhari to come to our rescue by deploying security along the Birinin-Gwari, Tegina, Kagara and Mokwa roads where many of our members had suffered attacks, kidnap and trucks sometimes hijacked by criminals”.
While commending the present administration for the repairs of federal roads, Erena called for patronage of only qualified construction companies and as well, timely release of funds to enable contractor handling the Lambata, Lapai to Bida roads mobilize to site.
