IPMAN warns NASS against interfering with equalization fund
By Hamad Mohammed, Kano
The Kano state branch of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN) on Friday cautioned the National Assembly against interfering with the mandate of the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF) as contained in the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB).
State Chairman of IPMAN, Alhaji Bashir Dan-Malam, gave the advice while speaking with newsmen in Kano.
“Expunging PEF from the PIGB will not only jeopardize IPMAN, but also take them out of business and increase the rate of unemployment, youth restlessness and banditry that is bedeviling the country at the moment.
“Expunging PEF from the PIGB will not only widen unemployment, but will cause serious income disparity between the North and South as a result of haulage of petroleum products from surplus areas to where there is scarcity,” Dan-Malam stated.
However, the IPMAN state chairman commended President Buhari for declining to give assent to the controversial bill, saying that Buhari was right to decline assent to the bill because of its shortcomings.
He said one of the shortcomings was that the bill had scrapped the Petroleum Equalization Fund (PEF), explaining that the PEF is money generated by petroleum marketers nationwide which currently stands at hundreds of billions of naira.
According to him, there was a sinister motive behind the scrapping of the PEF in the PIGB by those indebted and withholding the monies of the fund.
“Buhari was right to decline assent to the PIGB. There are a lot of errors in it. Significantly, the bill had scrapped PEF. This PEF is the money generated by independent marketers and it is even used in regulating petroleum prices nationwide.
“We have discovered that there are some elements who are owing the board hundreds of billions of naira of PEF funds that is why they recommended the scrapping of the PEF in the PIGB.
“Those clamouring or campaigning behind the scenes for the scrapping of PEF are doing so because they are hugely indebted to PEF by their failure to pay bridging and other allowances due to the board for the payment of marketers.
“Arguably, IPMAN can be said to be the next employer of labour after the federal government and our funds in PEF is our only benefit in the supply and distribution of petroleum products and deep penetration of the products to every corner of the country,” Dan-Malam said.
He called on Nigerians not to accept the removal of PEF in the PIGB, urging the National Assembly, especially the Senate to as a matter of urgency reintroduce the fund into the corrected bill to be forwarded to the president for assent.
