IPMAN: Ugwuanyi douses tension, forestalls strike

Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu state Tuesday doused tension in the lingering crisis in  the  Independent Petroleum Marketers Association (IPMAN),Enugu depot as he opened their office, hitherto shut by the state government.

Recall that as a result of the crisis and the shutting down of IPMAN, they embarked on a temporary strike that saw two filling stations closing shop, Tuesday against buyers of petroleum products.

Ugwuanyi during an extensive meeting which lasted for about four hours urged the IPMAN executives to go and open their office and commence work.

To check the IPMAN crisis, Enugu state government last year gave an executive order  to shut down the office of IPMAN to douse the tension following a faction of chairman led by Tabugbo Nnamani who claimed to be chairman of the union causing crisis in the state.

It was gathered that Ugwuanyi shut down the office to secure lives and properties and allow peace to reign.

Briefing journalists shortly after their meeting with the governor at IPMAN office in Emene, Enugu, the  chairman, Mr Chinedu Anyaso, commended Governor Ugwuanyi for his excellent decision and prayed God to give him more wisdom to pilot the affair of Enugu state.

“We held an extensive meeting with his the governor and he  today officially open our secretariat and has asked us to commence work as IPMAN Enugu depot unit. We are very glad with the outcome of the meeting. And we equally appeal to him to provide us with security both at the office and at depot so that what happened last year will not occur again.

“We are a united IPMAN now. We will call off the strike and commence work. We are grateful to Governor Ugwuanyi. He is the Gbururgburu of Igboland. We pray for the good Lord to give him wisdom to carry out the functions of the state”, he said.

Earlier before the meeting with the  governor, Anyaso said the union had resolved to shut down all the filling stations in Enugu and other states which are under their control until their office in Enugu which was locked down during crisis last year is opened to allow them discharge their legitimate work as executive officers of IPMAN Enugu depot.

He said: “We came here on the invitation of His Excellency,  Ugwuanyi because we demanded from state government to open our office at Emene, Enugu, so that we can exercise our duties legally and legitimately. You can see, all our demands, the government have not met with it. The issue is that we were inaugurated in office on 12th November 2019 and we wrote to the governor  intimating him on the appointment and inauguration and the depot community comprising IPMAN, PTD, PEDAN OGS, NATO, PSW and other organ working as cooperative at the community equally wrote to him, that we want to pay him a courtesy call, considering the large community, the governor did not respond to our letters, though we gathered that the letter did not get to him.”

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