Members of the Western Zone of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) have appealed to NNPC for consideration while supplying fuel.

They also urged the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) not to limit the distribution to major marketers alone in order to cushion the effect of fuel shortage in the country.

The South-west Zonal Chairman of IPMAN, Mr Debo Ahmed, made the call after an emergency meeting in Ilorin, the Kwara State capital in Southwest Nigeria.

Mr Debo asked for the supply of fuel to most government depots in the zone that are currently short of petroleum product.

He noted that the constant fuel scarcity was of great concern to the zone and called for pumping of fuel to depots in the south-west especially in Ilorin and Mosinmi so as to reduce the hardship on motorists.

The petroleum marketer said purchasing the product from private depots has negative impacts, lamenting that the private depots sell above official price thereby, forcing them to do the same.

He stressed that they had called on the NNPC to pump fuel to government owned depots so as to correct the situation, he also noted that going to Lagos for loading usually adds up to the cost.

On the non-availability of kerosene in the zone, the IPMAN Chairman disclosed that about one billion Naira had been paid to Warri refinery to load kerosene for the past 19 months.

He attributed the closure of the facility to the inability to load kerosene, recommending the transfer of their request for kerosene to Lagos in order to sell at official price and also reduce its shortage in the market.