Bridging Nigerians could see another round of fuel scarcity in the near future if the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) fail to pay over N250 billion outstanding bridging claims to Northern Independent Petroleum Marketers Forum.
It could be recalled that bridging claims represent the cost of transporting fuel from Pipelines and Products Marketing Company depots to approved zones to ensure a uniform pump price across the country.
The forum comprises nine depots in the North, including Kano, Kaduna, Suleja, Minna, Jos, Maiduguri, Gombe and Yola depots.
Speaking at a press conference on Thursday in Kano, after a review meeting, Chairman of the forum, Musa Yahya Maikifi said the forum had discovered that there is over N250 billion outstanding bridging claims that had not been paid by the NMDPRA for the period of one year.
He said failure to access the fund is threatening their businesses as some of their members could not afford to supply petroleum and sell it at various outlets.
According to him, the money would be used by the members of the forum to sustain the business, noting that failure to access the fund would have adverse effects on the entire northern state.
Shading more lights on the issue, Secretary of the forum Jarma Mustapha, said there were lots of outstanding bridging claims since the time of the defunct Petroleum Equalization Fund but the money had not been paid to them.
“We have outstanding bridging claims up to the day when the end of the deregulation was announced by the new President. As the new deregulation regime started now, we are faced with difficulties such as lack of capacity, lack of capital to continue our business because most of our capital was hanged with the defunct Petroleum Equalization Fund.
“We are now calling on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to intervene so that the whole of our outstanding claims, up to the 30th May, 2023, when the new deregulation was announced, should be paid for our members to continue getting enough capital to continue being in business.
