The National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has warned Lagosians to expect about 1000 petroleum tankers coming into the state on daily basis going by the number of petroleum tank farms that are now springing up in the state.
This is even as Shipping Position Daily has confirmed that not less than 40 petroleum tank farms have now sprang up at Ijegun-Satellite Town area of Lagos state.
Speaking with newsmen in Lagos last week, Lagos Zonal chairman of NUPENG, Comrade Tayo Aboyeji said that in order to avoid the looming traffic crisis within the state, there is an urgent need for government to decentralize the ports. He said that importers and investors in tank farm business should make use of other ports like Onne, Calabar, Warri and the problem will naturally disappear.
In the same vein, the union has charged the Lagos State Government to liaise with the federal government through the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) on the need to stop further issuance of permit and approval for tank farm constructions in the state. Confirming Shipping Position Daily findings, Comrade Boyeji said there are currently more than 40 petroleum tank farms at Satellite town while more than 40 tank farms were already in operations at Coconut axis of Apapa.
“The solution is this, let the governments make our refineries work. Let the depots work. We are even lucky now, in about three to four years; the trucks that will enter Lagos will be about 1000 per day. But thank God, some depots have started working. Mosimi, Warri and Port Harcourt have started working and this will help reduce the number of trucks that enter Lagos”
“There is this adage that says where you see sugar, you will see ants. Where there is tank farm, definitely, you will see trucks. When the tank farms started springing up, we told government , there would be problem in the future with the way tank farms are springing up. The tank farms in Coconut are not supposed to be more than eight, but we have more than 30, and all the trucks want to load”
“So, it is overconcentration of tank farms in Apapa and besides, along the port, go to Satellite, Ijegun, even Kirikiri, if you visit Kirikiri, you will weep and ask who on earth approved these tank farms in that place? Inside residential area and it is the same tankers that will go there and load”
“Go to Ijegun, when Ijegun started, we told them don't let this place be like Kirikiri or Apapa, but they didn't listen, my brother that place has about 40 tank farms now. The challenges we are experiencing today in these areas like Apapa, Tin Can, Kirikiri are as a result of lack of proper planning”
Comrade Aboyeji said that further investments in tank farm operations should equally be relocated to go to Badagry, Epe and other places.
“We have been praying everyday that God should not allow us to experience a fire disaster in Apapa. If it happens, nobody will escape from it.
Where will you escape to? Because of that, the union makes it a point of duty to frequently patch some of the portions of the bad roads in Apapa to avert fire disaster”
Speaking on the frequent tanker explosions in the country and the reckless driving by some drivers, Boyeji said the union has put several measures in place to address the challenge; one of them he said is training of the drivers. According to him, for the past five years, NUPENG has been training its drivers quarterly.
“We also collaborate with all the security agencies on the roads, especially those that ensure safety on the roads, like the FRSC. As I talk to you, two road safety personnel have been deployed in all the tank farms to ascertain the road worthiness of each truck. Many times, I have been in the depot where the FRSC will stop some trucks from loading because they are not road worthy”
“That is to tell you the efforts we are making to ensure that our trucks are road worthy. In our own, we have chief VIO and their responsibility is to check every vehicle and check if the driver is under the influence of alcohol and that has reduced accident involving tankers drastically, except this unfortunate one that occurred along Berger area”, he said.
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