■ Begin temporary supply
The Major Oil Marketers As¬sociation of Nigeria (MO¬MAN) yesterday gave the Federal Govern¬ment two weeks ulti-matum to settle the N200 billion fuel sub¬sidy debts owed the as¬sociation or be ready for prolonged scarcity.
Executive Secretary of MOMAN, Mr. Oba¬femi Olawore, issued the threat yesterday in Lagos at a media brief¬ing to update Nigerians on the latest develop¬ment in the petroleum products supply chain.
Olawore while ac¬knowledging the re¬ceipt of N154 billion subsidy claims from the Federal Government, explained that the N200 billion outstanding debt is taking a negative toll on the operations of the association.
The MOMAN scribe said the current fuel scarcity was further compounded by the strike embarked upon by the National Associ¬ation of Road Transport Owners(NARTO) as a result of the inability of MOMAN to pay it over N20 billion debt.
The secretary ex¬plained that with the understanding of the NARTO and Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD) that a grace of two weeks be granted to en¬able government effect balance of the money, the action has been temporarily suspended.
But as part of mea¬sures to find a lasting solution to the linger¬ing crisis, he said MO¬MAN has scheduled a meeting with the Min¬ister of Finance, Mrs. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Monday, adding that if nothing concrete comes out of the meet¬ing, NARTO members have threatened to withdraw its services of petroleum products lifting.
With this develop¬ment, he said MOMAN would not be able to offset the N20 billion owed NARTO, rather he said part of the debt would be settled.
Recall that Saturday Sun had last week giv¬en a breakdown of the N356.2 subsidy debt to include; outstanding debt on forex and inter¬est N215,868,237,459 while payment for Batch T of 2014 stood at N21,920,240,980.23 and Batch U 2014 at another N8,607,109,593.82 with Batch A 2015 amounting to N6,873,232,365.66 and Batch B 2015 at N2,911,139,639.70.
– Sun
