News

DSS’ Intervention: IPMAN Confirms NNPC’s Refund of N15bn to Oil Marketers

Published

3 days ago

October 14, 2024

Oil marketers yesterday confirmed that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) had started refunding the N15 billion owed its members by the national oil company.

Before the current developments in the downstream sector, the oil sector players under the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), said that they had paid the money to the NNPC for supply of petrol.

However, members of the association said that they were neither supplied nor reimbursed the funds, but that instead the NNPC was asking its members to augment the payment that was made months ago.

“It is unacceptable for the NNPC to ask us to add more money after withholding our payments for months without supplying the product,” Maigandi Shettima, head of the group had lamented during a television interview.

“Roughly, the amount we have paid is almost N15 billion. Our money has been with the NNPC for nearly three months, and they have yet to provide the product we paid for. Now, they are asking us to pay the difference,” Shettima added.

But speaking on the issue in an interview yesterday, IPMAN spokesman, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, said that the NNPC had started refunding the monies to the marketers’ wallets with the oil company after the Department of State Service (DSS) brokered a peace deal.

“We went to a meeting with the Director of the DSS who intervened in our matter,” Ukadike stated.

According to him, another outcome of the meeting was that the regulator, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) had agreed to issue the marketers licence to off-take from Dangote directly .

In addition, since Nigeria now operates a deregulated downstream market, the oil marketers, he said, have also been given the go-ahead to import petrol, given that the prospective firms have the required capacity.

Besides, at the meeting, he said, the NMDPRA agreed to pay the independent marketers N10 billion owed to them from the petrol bridging debt under the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) owed them.

“NMDPRA has graciously approved the sum of N10 billion for IPMAN’s outstanding payments in PEF. NNPC has also agreed to reduce the rate it sells to us from N1,040 per litre to about N1,000. They have also agreed to return our outstanding money we paid to them through their portal so that marketers can make it up.

“These are the things that we agreed on and we are awaiting implementation. But as I am talking to you now, NNPC has returned our money to individual independent marketer’s wallets,” he pointed out.

Ukadike noted that although the actual price the marketers will buy from the new $20 billion Dangote refinery had not been fully concluded, they will soon schedule a meeting with officials of the facility to arrive at a pricing template and loading arrangement.

There had been some sort of uncertainty in the downstream oil sector for weeks following the earlier pronouncement by the federal government that the NNPC will be the sole off-taker for petrol produced by the Dangote 650,000 barrels per day refinery.

But the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, last Friday explained that the direct purchase mechanism will henceforth allow marketers to negotiate commercial terms directly with the refineries, thereby fostering a more competitive market environment and enabling a smoother supply chain.

Edun, who is the Chairman of the Implementation Committee on Domestic Sales of Crude Oil in Local Currency, said the “New Direct Purchase Model,” was the most significant change under the new regime which now allows petroleum product marketers to purchase petrol directly from local refineries.

“This direct purchasing mechanism allows marketers to negotiate commercial terms directly with the refineries, fostering a more competitive market environment and enabling a smoother supply chain for petroleum products,” he stated.

News

Reps Pass For Second Reading Bill to create Ogoja state

Published

6 mins ago

October 17, 2024

Gloria Ikibah

By Gloria Ikibah

The House of Representatives has passed for second reading a Bill for an act to alter the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria ( 1999) (as amended) to create a new state in the SouthSouth Region of Nigeria known as Ogoja State.

The bill, which was sponsored by Rep. Godwin Offiono and 3 others seek to create a new state in the south-south geopolitical zone.

The lawmakers are proposing to alter the 1999 constitution to create Ogoja state from Cross River.

The bill was voted for when put to a voice vote by the presiding officer, Speaker Tajudeen Abbas.

The bill was referred to the committee on constitutional review for further legislative action.

News

Just in; Kenyan Senate vote to impeach Vice President

Published

1 hour ago

October 17, 2024

Naijablitznews

Kenya’s upper house of parliament is set to vote Thursday on whether to remove Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua from office in an unprecedented political saga that has gripped the nation.

The Senate will give its verdict at the end of the second day of an impeachment trial against the embattled number two to President William Ruto.

It follows a historic vote last week in the lower house, the National Assembly, to impeach Gachagua on 11 charges including corruption, insubordination, undermining the government and practising ethnically divisive politics.

A trial in the Senate began Wednesday after the 59-year-old, also known as “Riggy G”, failed in multiple court bids to halt the process.

The outspoken politican arrived at parliament on Thursday, shortly before the session opened, and is expected to testify in his defence later.

Gachagua has denied all the charges — and no criminal proceedings have been launched against him — but he will automatically be removed from office if the Senate approves his impeachment.

If this happens, he would be the first deputy president to be ousted in this manner since impeachment was introduced in Kenya’s revised 2010 constitution.

Gachagua, who has protested that he is being treated like a “spent cartridge”, can however fight the impeachment in the courts once the parliamentary process is completed.

Among the names of possible successors floated by the Kenyan media are Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki, Foreign Minister and Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi and a county governor, Anne Waiguru.

Gachagua’s chances of survival are slim if opposition members in the 67-seat Senate back the ruling party as witnessed in the National Assembly vote on October 9.

Unlike the process in the lower house, where MPs delivered their verdict on the entire motion, senators need to back just one charge, by at least two-thirds of the votes, for the impeachment to succeed.

An overwhelming 282 MPs in the 349-member assembly had overwhelmingly voted to impeach Gachagua, well over the more than two-thirds required.

A powerful businessman from Kenya’s biggest tribe, the Kikuyu, Gachagua weathered previous corruption scandals to become deputy leader as Ruto’s running mate in the closely fought 2022 election.

But in recent weeks, he has complained of being sidelined by the president, while also being accused of supporting youth-led anti-government protests that broke out in June.

Political tensions have been running high since the sometimes deadly demonstrations erupted over unpopular tax hikes, exposing divisions in the top echelons of power.

At a media briefing ahead of last week’s vote, Gachagua vehemently rejected what he called “nonsensical allegations” and said the efforts to oust him disregarded the will of the Kenyan people in 2022.

Source: akeliciousnews

News

Warning! FG tells Nigerians living close to river banks to relocate

Published

2 hours ago

October 17, 2024

Naijablitznews

The Federal Government, via the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency (NIHSA), has directed Nigerians living around river banks along the River Benue Basin to quickly move to safer grounds.

This was contained in a statement on Thursday, NIHSA Director General, Umar Mohammed, warned that water on the River Benue has reached the flooding level due to increased rainfall.

He also urged those along the River Niger to move to a safe location as the management of Kainji and Jebba Dams are working to control the floodwaters.

The NIHSA boss urged Nigerians to cooperate with the emergency management agencies and work together to build resilience against flooding in Nigeria and minimise the effects of the flood.

Recently, the government warned Nigerians to relocate to safe ground after the release of water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon. This followed the release of water from the overflowing Alau Dam killed over 30 persons and swept away thousands of homes in Maiduguri, the capital city of Borno State.

In 2022, flooding ravaged many states, claimed 665 lives, displaced 2,437,411 persons, and affected 4,476,867 persons, according to data from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

Recall in 2023, devastating floods affected 159,157 individuals, caused the loss of 28 lives, and displaced 48,168. The release of water from the Lagdo Dam contributed to some of the flooding cases experienced.

For 2024, NEMA said flooding affected 1,048,312 people between April and September 2024, displaced 625,239 persons and killed 259 lives.