More reactions have continued to trail last week’s explosion which took place at a petroleum tank farm in Apapa Lagos belonging to MRS Oil Company, even as operators recounted their ordeal in the face of the unprecedented blast and called for the immediate relocation of tank farms away from residential and port areas.
The Port and Terminal Multiservice Limited (PTML) command of the Nigeria Customs Service has also announced that two of its female officers were affected by the blast that shook the entire Customs building which is very close to the MRS jetty.
More reactions have continued to trail last week’s explosion which took place at a petroleum tank farm in Apapa Lagos belonging to MRS Oil Company, even as operators recounted their ordeal in the face of the unprecedented blast and called for the immediate relocation of tank farms away from residential and port areas.
The Port and Terminal Multiservice Limited (PTML) command of the Nigeria Customs Service has also announced that two of its female officers were affected by the blast that shook the entire Customs building which is very close to the MRS jetty.
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily in his office last week, the image maker of the command, Mr. Steve Okonma recounted that one of the officers, a pregnant woman, fainted at the sound of the loud explosion and was quickly rushed to the hospital. The other officer, according to him had a cut on her legs from shattered glasses and had to be stitched also.
He said that even though normalcy has since returned to the command after the pandemonium that followed the ugly incidence, many of the officers are still working under fear.
The incident has really exposed many things, this means that the whole area is not really safe because of the tank farms, the luck we had was that it was the vessel that was burning, if it were to be a tank, everyone would have died. The fear was very real, how can we continue to work under fear like this?” he said.
Also reacting on the incident, PTML Chapter chairman of NAGAFF, Chief Cosmas Ndimkora called on the federal government to relocate the tank farms from the port area, arguing that tank farms are supposed to be 25 kilometres away from where people are populated.
“So many people were injured by way of trying to escape, so many documents were lost and money was lost, what we are asking the government is to please, it is only in Nigeria that tank farms are situated inside the port, let them remove it from here, it is too close for comfort, we want government to yield our call” he appealed.
Also speaking on the incident, operations manager of Fist Deepwater petroleum tank farm, Mr. Sunday Okpithe told Shipping Position Daily that there is need for tank farm operators to be extra conscious and to uphold safety measures because of the volatile environment they operate in.
“The environment we operate is very volatile, so we have to be security conscious. The tank farm have been there for years and I have never heard of such an event happening, so I will not want to comment on the reasons or what caused the explosion” he said.
Emmanuel Akide, National Deputy President of Council of Managing Directors of Licensed Customs Agents in his words said that: “The tank farms are a disaster; there is no security for lives and properties and yesterday was a eye opener for all of us. Government should as matters of urgency relocate the tank farms from the port so that we can have peace and security”.
And speaking in similar vein, a member of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mr Mufutau Egberongbe, also called on the Federal Government to relocate the tank farms from Apapa, Lagos, to other parts of Lagos.
Egberongbe (ACN- Apapa I), who made the call in an interview with newsmen in Lagos last week, stated that: “I said it severally, that tank farms are combustible and any slightest fire will result into a serious disaster and that is what we have seen on Wednesday. “Apapa is choked right now and we cannot continue to have more of tank farms. The tank farms should be relocated to fallow lands.
“We have lands in Ibeju-Lekki and Badagry axis and if they can be relocated to these areas, it will open up development in those places,’’ he said.
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