Barely two weeks after the New Year eve bomb blast in Abuja as well as other series of security threats in the country, tank farms and jetty operators in Lagos appear to be the next target of the terrorist group as management of the multimillion naira facilities confirmed that it has been receiving alerts from security operatives of an imminent bomb attack.
Currently, there are more than 30 tank farms scattered all around and currently operating in Lagos.
Top personnel of some of the tank farms located at the Ibru yard; along the Apapa-Oshodi expressway in Lagos who spoke to our correspondent said that the warning was handed down to the operators through the offices of the State Security Service (SSS).
Even though there was no visible evidence of panic in the day to day activities of customers and marketers who still come in from different parts of the country to load products at the various depot, our correspondent however gathered that there is a under- current of panic on the part of the management, but each depot is trying as much as possible not to scare hundreds of marketers who throng the depots on daily basis.
However, marketer the effect of the alert has started being noticed as marketers and others who transact businesses with the tank farms started being subjected to rigorous frisking by security agents.
The marketers have however began to raise highbrows when they were all of a sudden subjected to a rigorous extra searching and were requested to reaffirm their identification before they are allowed entrance into the ever-busy Ibru yard.
An on- the- spot check conducted by Shipping Position Weekly correspondent last week to some of the tank farms confirmed that some of them have made access into their facilities more stringent so as to discourage unwanted persons from entering.
Our correspondent also noticed that some of the depots have started the installation of Close Circuit Television (CCTV) camera in their premises in order to help monitor activities in and around the facilities. Apart from this, stringent processes of searches have been introduced before anyone is allowed into the depot.
According to a top management staff of one of the tank farms who pleaded anonymity, "it is true that we are having security challenges here and the essence of all the security checks is to make sure that nothing is brought in here, so also the jetties are being secured tightly".
Our source also expressed concerns that “should this threat be carried out we can not begin to quantify the level of damage that will be done to this country considering how many lives and billions of Naira worth of property that will be lost, though it is only God that can guarantee perfection, but we will still do our own part here, remember that even in more advanced countries that have more sophisticated gadgets, terrorist still strike, but we can only pray to God that this is an empty threat” he said.
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