fuel crisis:federal government releases fuel to independent marketers

_{The federal government has began the release of petrol to Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) – IPMAN said the release of petrol to the members was part of efforts to settle the 7,000 pending loading tickets of IPMAN Fuel queues to disappear soon? The lingering fuel scarcity that has lasted over a month seems to be over as the federal government has commenced the release of petrol to Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN). According to a press release issued by the organization’s secretary, Lawson Ngoa, IPMAN said the release of petrol to the members was part of efforts to settle the 7,000 pending loading tickets of IPMAN. He revealed that IPMAN controlled over 80 per cent of the petroleum products’ retail outlets in the country and that members were not getting products from the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) due to internal leadership crisis since last two years but said members have started loading the products from some depots in Lagos as a result of the efforts of the Committee. Ngoa said the Committee had taken steps to ensure that products were available all over the country. He thanked Nigerians for the patience and understanding during difficult period and assured that with the support of the minister of petroleum resources and his team, the scarcity would soon be over. Meanwhile more than 400 illegal refineries have been destroyed by the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) in the past three months. This comes amidst fuel scarcity and the inability of the country to refine enough crude for local consumption. Also, Occupy Nigeria Group has announced that the will be a peaceful and peoples organized protest in the city of Port Harcourt next week Thursday April 14. This protest which the group is said is aimed at driving a strong citizenship position against the inability of the Federal government to address the burning perennial fuel scarcity, zero Megawatts and total lack of electricity amidst increased tariff, incessant/fraudulent bank charges on poor Nigerians among other serious economic matters.source:naij news}