No fewer than 1613 innocent Nigerians lost their lives in different tanker explosion accidents between June 2009 to October 2024 in Nigeria.
This was disclosed by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) and Senator representing Jigawa northwest senatorial districts, Senator Babangida Hussaini in an exclusive interview with Tribune Online in Jigawa state.
Hussaini explained that in the period under review, many tragic accidents occurred on Nigerian roads which claimed lives and valuable items were lost.
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According to him “There are really no official figures as to the number of accidents and disasters from petroleum tanker explosion. From personal research conducted there were 169 fuel tanker accidents which led to the death of 1,613 innocent Nigerians.”
He said in searching for a lasting solution to the problems, last Thursday, during the senate plenary, he led the debate on the general principles of the articulated vehicles safety regulations bill 2025, saying “The bill was read for the first time in November 2024, the bill makes a provision of regulations and safety of articulated vehicles in line with the construction of the federal republic of Nigeria 1999 as amended.”
The FERMA Senate committee chairman stated that “one of the provisions of the bill is the aspect that sees to make it mandatory for vehicles to be inspected every six months in order to guarantee their roadworthiness.
“This is necessary in view of the facts that most of the accidents on our roads are caused by the negligence of the vehicle owners or drivers who most times could not take road worthiness into consideration as so long as they are moving.
“Recently, we witnessed a series of mishaps that resulted in petroleum tanker explosions in Jigawa, Lagos, Niger states and parts of the country. The persistence carriage in our road accession by haulage of petroleum products has made it imperative for legislation of this nature to address and postal future accordance has the needs for the senate to support the expedite passage of the bill in view of significant importance.”
He added that the bill has no additional financial burden of the treasury of the federal government since the enforcement of the bill will be under the existing statutory body of the country by the National Assembly.
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