Tina Amanda
A new leadership of the Rivers State Chapter of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association, IPMAN, has emerged.
The George Eppie-led faction of the Association came on board following the intervention of the State Commissioner of Police, Friday Eboka in enforcing the directives of the IGP to enforce the Supreme Court judgment delivered in his favour in 2018.
In an interview with our correspondent, the Chairman, George Eppie who is in an acting capacity said there was no election that brought the Joseph Obele-led administration into office, assuring that he is ready to work with all aggrieved parties to move IPMAN forward.
He said the association does not intend to embark on industrial action as speculated in some quarters, adding that all filling stations across the state are dispensing fuel at the moment.
“The Supreme Court is the final court as far as Nigeria is concerned, they told us to take over office and we took over the IPMAN office Rivers State on 31st July, 2021, following the invitation of CP Rivers Police Command to his office where he read out the court ruling to all aggrieved parties.
“There is no crisis in IPMAN Rivers State, I plead with all aggrieved parties to come together and let’s work as one. I am ready to work with everyone. For now we are just a caretaker, sooner we would conduct an election.
“I wish to inform the general public that we do not intend to embark on any strike action, all our Marketers are selling their products. Nobody should panic, we urge our members to carry on their business activities.”
Also, Secretary of the IPMAN Caretaker Committee, Chibuike Ozor-Ejike, explained that since 2018, they have been trying to enforce the Supreme Court ruling in order to avoid crisis in the Union.
“They resulted to lawlessness, they refused to vacate the office, we had to employ the full arms of the law, because we did not want to appear illegal or take laws into our hands. Since the supreme court judgement, we have been trying to follow the legal process of enforcing the ruling and that is what we have done, nobody can thwart the judgement.”
Recall that CP Friday Eboka, had on 31st July, invited the three parties involved in the IPMAN leadership tussle to his office, in order to enforce the directives issued by the Inspector General of Police for the George Eppie-led Executive to be sworn in as IPMAN Caretaker Committee, based on the Supreme Court judgment.
