Fuel scarcity looms as Northern marketers threaten strike over unpaid N50bn bridging claims

Northern Independent Petroleum marketers have lamented that the Federal Government through the Petroleum Equalization Fund is yet to settle about N50 billion Bridging Claim for over nine months, an incident that forced many of them out of the business. The marketers expressed worries that failure to settle their claims may lead to scarcity of fuel in the North as the majority of its members run out of capital, hence could not buy and transport fuel to the region. This is contained in a statement by the Forum’s chairman, Alhaji Musa Maikifi, and issued to newsmen in Kano on Sunday. According to the statement, Maikifi made the lamentation during a meeting with the Forum’s members from the nine depots across the Northern states, at Ni’ima Guest Palace in Kano on Saturday. He said for the past nine months they had made efforts to get their money paid but in vain. “If this continues in this way so many of us will have to close down our fuel stations. This will add to the fuel scarcity in the region because the marketers have no capital. “The Federal Government couldn’t settle our claims of over N50 billion. We met the authority involved and they promised to pay us but yet they haven’t. So, that is why we are here to plead with them to pay us our unsettled claims so that we can continue our business smoothly,” he lamented.