By Emma Ujah, Abuja Bureau Chief

The Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association (DAPMAN) has asked the federal government to provide the foreign exchange for their previous fuel imports before the recent new petrol price regime. The Chairman of DAPMAN who led a delegation of the association to a meeting with the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi Adeosun, in Abuja, yesterday, said that subsidy and foreign exchange differentials paid to the marketers by the federal government were sitting in their Naira accounts with their banks in the country but that they could not source foreign exchange to liquidate their previous transactions’ obligations offshore.

His words, “You would recall vividly how desperate we were to get paid before this administration came in.  It was so bad that but for the fact that we  had faith in the Buhari administration that had just come.

“Our bankers stopped supporting us which made it practically impossible for us to continue to import petroleum products during the transition time.

“We sat among ourselves and we decided that in good faith and because of our level of commitment and patriotism to this country we decided that we will wet the country with petroleum products, despite the fact that huge amounts of money was being owed us, just before this administration came in.