From David Onwuchekwa, Nnewi
An Nnewi, Anambra State-based petrol station operator, Mr Innocent Okoli, has defended the decision of petroleum products dealers in the industrio-commercial centre not to sell their old stock of petroleum products at the old pump price, and their resolve to sell at the current pump price of N500 and above.
Mr Okoli said the marketers only shut down their filling stations as soon as President Bola Tinubu’s inaugural speech was made to understand the implication of the speech.
He said that nobody hoarded the products in Nnewi as alleged by residents in some quarters, adding that they immediately reopened their individual filling stations after digesting the inaugural speech.
“We are selling according to the new price, old stock or no old stock. There are some marketers who tried to procure a new consignment after the removal of subsidy, but they could not afford the new price.
“So, as the subsidy has been removed nobody should expect us to continue to sell at the old price regime otherwise we can’t replace our stock,” he noted.
He said now that the pump price had been increased, that marketers would sell according to how much they obtained their products, which would be determined by price mechanism.
He disclosed that the marketers were not against subsidy removal but had always been against channelling the money realized therefrom wrongly without using it in the best the interest of the masses.
Chairman of the petroleum marketers in Nnewi, Chief Soge Egbuna, said the individual marketers in the city should not be blamed for increasing their prices like other marketers across the country.