Ahead of a meeting scheduled for Thursday by certain oil marketers under the platform the Association of Distributors and Transporters of Petroleum Products (ADITOP), the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, (NARTO) and the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, (IPMAN) have disowned the new group.

Findings revealed that ADITOP in an emergency meeting of its Board of Trustees and Patrons scheduled for Thursday in Abuja has as part of its agenda, assistance to truck owners and how to address challenges facing marketers.

But NARTO and IPMAN in separate statements signed by Alhaji Yusuf Lawal Othman and Abubakar Maigandi decried the motive of the new association and the forces behind it which they declared was inimical to industrial harmony in the downstream oil sector.

NARTO President, Othman, in his statement, said ADITOP was a strange association with no direct bearing and relationship with transporters of petroleum products in the county.

He said: ?Our attention has been drawn to the new association which has fixed a meeting of its members for Abuja on Thursday.

?We have observed that part of the agenda of their meeting was to discuss the interest and welfare of truck owners and their drivers.

?We wish to put the federal government and all the relevant regulatory agencies in the oil industry on notice that ADITOP is not known to us.

?NARTO is the only registered association accorded recognition to transport petroleum products and we have a good working relationship with Major Energies Marketers Association of Nigeria, (MOMAN), the Indepedent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, (IPMAN) and the Depots and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN) being the transporters of their products.

?We are the association covering the interest of all owners of tankers. We also have good working relationship with NUPENG to safeguard the welfare of tanker drivers,? he said.

In its separate statement, IPMAN President, Abubakar Maigandi,

also raised alarm about the intention of the individuals behind ADITOP.

?We are the major suppliers of petroleum products to all the nooks and crannies of Nigeria. We do not have any problem with all other stakeholders in the industry, including NUPENG and NARTO. We are in harmony with all the other stakeholders and we do not subscribe to any activity that will cause disruption in the supply of petroleum products,? Maigandi stated. (Nigerian Tribune)

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