There was calmness at the popular Ibru jetty along Apapa Oshodi expressway last week as petroleum tanker drivers who hitherto throng the depots for loading of products are now diverting to get their products from Mosimi Depot in Ogun State.
Shipping Position Daily recalls that the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) had recently re-opened the Mosimi Depot bafter twelve months of being shut down due to activities of pipeline vandals.
The long queue of tankers along the Apapa expressway usually caused by petroleum tankers coming to load from all over the country was last week reduced drastically.
Speaking with our correspondent, an official of the Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) Comrade Johnson Aighigohan at T’time Petroleum depot within Ibru Jetty noted that most tankers, especially those supplying western states, are now diverting to Mosimi to get cargoes.
He noted that “the deplorable state of the roads leading to Lagos depot calls for urgent attention from the federal government, the traffic along this route, especially if you pass through Ijora bridge, has caused many trucks to avoid Lagos because of the long queues, and essentially, now that the Mosimi depot has been re-opened many western bound trucks are now moving straight there to get product” he said.
Also speaking with our correspondent at Ascon Oil at Ibru jetty, a petroleum marketer, Alhaji Lukeman Agboola noted that due to the shutting down of Mosimi depot, most petroleum marketers had moved their activities to Lagos. He noted that sometimes, the tankers had to cue for several hours before finally getting to load products.
“I want to commend the NNPC for re-opening the Mosimi depot, sometimes you bring your truck to load product here and for several hours you would not get near the gate, in addition to this, you would be required to part with a lot of bribe from security agents” he alleged.
Agboola maintained that the stress of moving petroleum trucks to Lagos to convey petroleum product to other parts of the country is getting highly minimized.
Shipping Position Daily also noted that the popular Creek road leading to Folawiyo depot in Apapa was also free of traffic. Some of the tanker drivers who responded to enquiries from our correspondent noted that some of their colleagues have diverted to loading products elsewhere.
Meanwhile the Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has said that the re-opening of the Mosimi depot will make distribution of petroleum products to the South-west easy and put less pressure on petroleum tankers that throng the Lagos axis to load.
NUPENG National President, Comrade Igwe Achese in a recent statement called the NNPC to also re-open the system 2B line so that petroleum products can be dispensed through that line.
However, he said his members want the NNPC to also go further to reactivate and re-open the other moribund depots scattered all over the county. “To crown it all, we called for the establishment of Pipeline Protection Agency (PPA) to be saddled with the protection of pipelines traversing the nooks and crannies of the country”
“The Agency should be well funded and equipped with modern day gadgets like alarms, sensors and helicopters gun-ships with night vision,” he said.
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