Oil Marketers Continue Strike Despite FG’s Promises

 The marketers, who spoke on Friday, confirmed that the government had yet to contact them for deliberations.

The FG on Thursday, through the Ministry of Finance, directed the Debt Management Office to pay marketers all subsidy claims that had been verified.

The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, had said the claims would be paid as soon as the Petroleum Products Pricing and Regulatory Agency provided the supporting Sovereign Debt Notes. But she did not disclose the total amount to be paid to the marketers.

The minister, in a statement by her Senior Special Assistant on Communication, Mr. Paul Nwabuiku, had said there was no need for the marketers to go on strike since the government was already addressing the subsidy payment issue.

Confirming the position of the marketers on Friday, the President, Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association, Chief Dapo Abiodun, said, “Of course we are still on strike. We have not heard from the government yet. There has been no meeting between us and government.”

He said officially, neither the association nor its members had been communicated to in that regard.

He said, “What we hear are just rumours that we’ll be paid.”

It was learnt from some members of the Jetty and Petroleum Tank Farm Owners of Nigeria that the government had yet to reach them on the development.

Marketers had said on Wednesday that they were awaiting proof from the government that it would actually pay the claims.