For the third day running, fuel scarcity persists in Calabar as the factional crisis within the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) deepens as Lawrence Agim leads a faction, while Edet Umana leads the other.
The latest crisis is as a result of a Federal High Court Calabar judgement which on June 19, 2019, under Justice Simon Amobeda, in the suit by Ben Dimkpa and four others representing members of IPMAN Eastern zone against the Registered Trustees of IPMAN led by Aminu Abdulkadir ordered that, “the Deputy Chief Registrar, Litigation of the Federal High Court, Abuja should execute the judgement delivered on 21st February 2019 by removing any person presently occupying the defendants National Secretariat.
The two Federal High Court Calabar orders according to the State Chairman of IPMAN Umana put in place by Okoronkwo, were from the same Federal High Court Calabar and were given despite subsisting judgements from the Appeal Court and the December 14 judgement of the Supreme Court which had delivered judgement in the case brought by Obasi Lawson against Chinedu Okoronkwo and 10 others confirming Okoronkwo as the authentic leader of the national body of IPMAN and by extension all the state executives put in place by him.
This latest order from the Federal High Court, Calabar, empowered the faction of IPMAN in Calabar led by Agim to swing into action and as at yesterday most filling stations especially that of independent marketers could not sell as tanker drivers supporting Agim declined to lift products at the depot.
The Agim faction in the state were alleged to have gone round town closing down stations and at the same time tanker drivers used their trucks to block the depot undermining the leadership of Umana who was inaugurated state chairman of IPMAN by the National President.
Following this development, motorists and commuters have been exposed to untold hardship as they prayed for urgent government intervention.
