Written by Austine Odo
Monday, 30 July 2007

of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), long after they have paid for the product.

In a petition addressed to Mr. Funso Kupolokun, Managing Director of the NNPC yesterday, the manufacturers numbering about 40, stated that after making payments for tons of black oil, they have not been able to take delivery of the products because of the delay tactics of the NNPC officials and their agents, WABECO.

Black oil is used in large industrial concerns to power heavy machineries and boilers in their production lines. Industry leaders therefore appealed to Kupolokun to intervene and ensure that justice is done.

The petition signed by their solicitors, Olayemi Abogun and Co, stated: "In compliance with the payment directives and fully satisfied that WABECO indeed had stock of LPFO in its tank depot, our clients paid huge sums of money running into hundreds of millions of naira into designated account of WABECO.

"Fortified with evidence of payment, our clients moved to WABECO depot to load their respective tankers with the product, but were denied delivery of same".

He stated that most of the tankers brought to convey the products have been lying idle at the Apapa Tank farm of WABECO in the last three weeks with all the overhead costs and the traffic menace on the expressway.

"Some of our clients’ industrial premises have been shut while several of their workers have either been retrenched for redundancy and factories shut down for inability to procure the black oil which is a valuable and indispensable product in their manufacturing and industrial production processes", Abogun stated further.

Some of the stranded officials from the industries spoken to at WABECO Tank Farm in Ibafon, Apapa at the weekend claimed that they were directed by officials of the Petroleum and Pipelines Marketing Company (PPMC) in Abuja to proceed to Lagos and take delivery of the products, only to be told by WABECO that they had no instruction to load them.

They wondered why NNPC that sent their staff to Lagos could change their mind overnight after a carefully drawn loading schedule had been approved and issued to the buyers without consideration to the plight of the industries and the workers.

"We don’t understand the delay, is it the NNPC or WABECO that is behind this wicked act? There is something fishy and we want EFCC to come to our rescue and investigate this day-light robbery", they said.

Some of the affected industries include, Ashaka Cement Company, United Nigeria Textiles Limited, Kaduna, Gaskiya Textiles, Kano, Jos Breweries, NASCO Group, Jos, Funtua Textiles, Katsina, Cement Company of Northern Nigeria, Sokoto, among several others.

According to the solicitors, "Should NNPC persist in its uncanny breach to divert our clients product to any third party or further withhold delivery to them, within the next seven days, we shall have no hesitation in filing a law suit to enforce our clients’ right in the circumstances".