By Oscarline Onwuemenyi
The Petroleum Products Pricing Regulatory Agency, PPPRA, has dismissed as unfortunate reports in a medium (not Vanguard) that the Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke, was using the agency as a conduit to receive bribes worth over N2.2 billion from oil marketers in the country.

Executive Secretary of PPPRA, Engr. Goody Egbuji, who debunked the reports at a briefing with journalists in Abuja, Tuesday, noted that the report by the newspaper in question particularly made false allegations undermining the integrity of the recently-concluded second quarter products importation allocation exercise.

Egbuji stressed that the operating price boundaries for products are well established by both international and industry standards as shown in the PPPRA template, thereby leaving no room for any manipulations or extraneous factors.

“In other words, there is no way such tightly determined margins can accommodate additional burden as being alleged by the publication. In this sense, the PPPRA cannot be said to be ‘used’ by the Minister of Petroleum to ‘fleece’ oil marketers,” he said, adding that ministerial approval for Second Quarter (Q2) of 2011 was irretrievably given since March 31, 2011, and letters issued for collection soon after.