By Simon Adewale

The Esama of Ukepedi Kingdom in Ughelli, Delta State, Olorogun Okiemute Okwagbe, has kicked against what he called the apartheid policy of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN executive at the Warri depot and called for IPMAN general election.

Addressing newsmen in Ughelli, Chief Okwagbe disclosed that the Warri depot of IPMAN executive has targeted its   practices against petroleum products marketers of the union who are considered not to be in  the good books of the executive, alleging that those in the Warri depot are  short-changing their fellow marketers by diverting all the allocations of IPMAN to the benefit of their    companies and their cronnies.

Chief Okwagbe who is also an oil marketer alleged  that these  are driven by  greed to the extent of loading other marketers products that is not programmed for them, only to approach the legitimate owners of such products with less than 3% of the profit acquirable from these transactions.

Chief Okwagbe stressed that  the only way the carnage and the siege can be stopped is to conduct the IPMAN election now in line with the fundamental principles of equity and justice and urged Senator Dr. Ifeanyi  Okowa to use his good office to prevail on the Warri Depot IPMAN executive to conduct an election where the marketers can choose new  leaders of their choice. He alleged that most of these practices are carried out with the tacit support of PPMC management staff who are more interested in their personal pockets than the overall objective of the downstream sector of the Nigerian economy.

When Vanguard called the Chairman of IPMAN Warri depot, Chief Benjamin Omonigho Emoefe, disclosed that IPMAN is a register body and well documented, that it is not possible for someone to divert members allocations; if otherwise such persons have right to report incident to IPMAN office or to the Nigerian Police to investigation such crime.