Depot explosion: Nigerians are sitting on a keg of gunpowder – Fashola

The Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has urged the Federal Government to quickly move the fuel discharging facilities from the Tin Can Island Port, where the MRS Oil and Gas Tank Farm Jetty exploded on Wednesday morning, killing about five persons and injuring several persons in the process, to a more suitable location.
Fashola, who visited the scene of the explosion to assess the extent of damage, opined that the explosion was a wakeup call for the government.
According to him, Nigeria does not have the wherewithal to contain any sort of fire incident involving oil installation facilities.
His words: “I don’t think we should wait before we get there.
“This is enough lesson.
“It is a wakeup call for everybody and we are sitting on a keg of gunpowder.”
Fashola said that it was pure luck that the explosion did not spread like fuel explosions are wont to.
If it had spread, the damage would have been huge, said Fashola.
“One can only begin to imagine what we would be dealing with here the day after but for pure luck and we can’t continue to live on pure luck and I hope our luck is not running out really,” Fashola said.
The governor also called on the Federal government to live up to its responsibility of managing maritime safety, fuel management, fuel importation, port management, which are part of its duties.
He said: “All of that are clearly responsibility that does not belong to our government.
“They belong to the central government and I want to think that we can do better than this amateurish standard.
“These people are in business and when you look at what they have done here, you can only hope that people will pay more attention.
“Government must also understand that it’s in business and its profit is different.
“It’s the welfare of its people and it cannot deliver that by amateur standard.
“This place was not designed for fuel discharge.
“We’ve converted it.
“All sorts of permits given by regulatory agencies – DPR, PPMC and all of those people – all of these were part of the private jetties when the Tincan Island was built, up to Ibafo and all of that because we just converted it because the old installations in Apapa became inadequate.
“There was no plan for the future.
“We’ve set up a safety commission trying to design safety standards for different activities, including this and of course some of the times when we try to get compliance here, this place is sealed up with all sorts of security men who would say that this is a national security thing that we can’t come in.”
Fashola insisted that every government must be proactive in ensuring disasters of such nature were minimal, urging the Federal Government to increase its advocacy and safety measure to nip such occurrences in the bud.
He added: “I think that going forward, what we must do here is to first of all get the agencies of the Federal Government to step up their safety compliance levels.
“Everybody must do his job and that is short term.
“The long term is to relocate all of these facilities away from a residential area.
“Lagos State is ready to provide these facilities.
“Let us begin a relocation plan.
“Let this place come back to what it was.
“Let the private jetties come back for people to discharge very safe and simple cargo and all of that.
“So the ball is in the court of the Federal Government.”
In a related development, Fashola said the state government would not allow the immediate reconstruction of Oko Baba Plank Market, which was burnt down by fire on Tuesday.
Fashola said that the government would, rather, re-design the entire area and make it compliant with what is obtainable in modern societies.
Speaking during a visit to Oko Baba to commiserate with the residents, Fashola said: “First I’m going to send the Ministry of environment to come here and clear all the drainage, clean the place up and nobody should build here without town planning approval.
“We won’t let you do it.
“We need to sit down and talk on how we want this place to be.
“We need to separate saw mill business from residential area.
“Do we want to do everything here or get a place where we can saw our logs and bring the planks here to sell?
“We are preparing a place with machines that can saw your logs.
“We are also constructing 3,000 housing units there for you to live in.
“There will be water power supply among other things.
“Government has done its bit.
“It is now left for you to decide whether you want to live in this dirty place or move to where you have everything to enhance your work.”
The governor used the importunity to urge the people to cultivate the habit of insuring their properties against natural disasters.
His words: “No matter how small, any property can be insured.
“If you have television that cost N200,000, it is only the one per cent of that amount that you need to insure it.
“If anybody had done that here, you would have been at your insurance agent’s office to make your claim.”