Oil marketers in Nigeria have rejected the call by billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, for them to sell off their investments in the nation’s oil sector.
Speaking on Tuesday, during Channels Television’s The Morning Brief, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Billy Gillis-Harry, stated that Otedola’s statement was insensitive and not properly thought out.
Naijaonpoint recalls that Otedola had claimed that fraudulent fuel subsidy activities occurred during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He asserted that the fraudulent subsidy claims were tied to depot licenses, noting that the policy rewarded neither transparency nor innovation, but encouraged rent-seeking and corruption.
Specifically, Otedola took on the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), a group of oil marketers that has been engaged in a running battle with the Dangote Refinery in recent days.
Otedola, going down memory lane, recalled that he founded DAPPMAN 23 years ago, specifically in 2002, with a clear mission to challenge the dominance of major marketers and provide independent depot owners with a fair platform to thrive.
He, however, stated that the original players have left and those presently in the association are clinging to assets that have lost value.
Responding to the claims from Otedola, Gillis-Harry, said the businessman can not speak for the organization.
He added that as a former member of DAPPMAN, Otedola should have a better understanding of the kind of investments the oil marketers had made and should not have uttered such insensitive statements.
The PETROAN boss noted that the fact that Otedola was lucky to have quickly and easily disposed his own assets and moved on does not give him any right to tell others to scrap investments they gave several millions to set up.
“Otedola’s view on marketers innovating and restructuring is not a thoughtful statement. Is he saying all the investments that have happened in that sector should just go down the drain?
“Yes, new things come up in terms of innovation, and old things will go, but there are structures that will still serve even in this current reality.
“Dangote’s investment in the sector is very timely because it gives all of us peace of mind.
“But, Mr Otedola’s thoughts are up for debate because he himself was a DAPPMAN member, and he knows what it took for him to invest in that area.
“Today, he has divested into other areas, but others have not been able to move as fast as he did.
“Recommending that they should scrap their investments is something that he should think deeply about before giving such advice.
“These facilities are across Nigeria- Port Harcourt, Calabar, Port Harcourt, Ogara, Lagos, and even some of them on the Mainland to help ease product distribution.
“I believe that DAPPMAN’s leadership can speak for themselves, but I don’t think it is a good idea that Nigerians who have invested so much should scrap their investments,” he said.
© 2025 Naijaonpoint, a division of NOP Media Inc. Contact us via [email protected]