Lagos records 53 gas explosions claiming 200 lives in 2 years

DAYO ADEYEMI writes on an imminent danger as Lagos State and a Federal Government agency scuffle over land usage in Lagos.

IF the lamentations of more than 800,000 residents of Satellite Town in Amuwo Odofin Local Government Area of Lagos State over the siting of tank farms in their locality are to be taken seriously, then both the federal and state governments currently feuding over the locations of the farms would have to make a choice between securing lives and generating revenues.

The residents, who claimed to have had no premonition of their current challenges when they moved to the residential community four decades ago, are currently  grieving  over the increase in the number of tank farms in the area, coupled with the associated environmental risk. This, they said, has been threatening their survival as law-abiding Nigerians.

The once purely-residential community, which was set up by the government in 1970 to help civil servants and  low-income earners have their own houses, has become a shadow of itself. It is now characterised by bad roads, overflowing drainages and flooding, as discovered by Saturday Tribune during a tour of the area.

Apart from the fear of possible fire outbreak due to the reckless behaviour of oil truck drivers around the tank farms, the main road leading to the neighbourhood and other inner roads have been damaged. In addition, all the drainages in the community have been destroyed by tanker drivers, while most of the roads have been taken over by flood waters.

 

‘We daily live in fear here’

Describing their situation as unbearable, chairman of Satellite Town Forum, Governor Imitini, told Saturday Tribune that the lives of residents were in danger because of the nuisance of oil tanker drivers and the visible environmental degradation in the community.

He said apart from the emission from oil tankers, lifting fuel from the over 20 tank farms in the area, there have also been cases of water pollution in the community and this had been affecting the wellbeing of the people.

Imitini said “people in this community may be prone to cancer in the future due to the effect of pollution.” Apart from pollution, he disclosed that frequent accidents involving tankers had turned the area into a nightmare.

He said: “Just three days ago, a woman was crushed to death by a tanker that came to lift fuel from one of the tank farms. Residents can no longer sleep at night due to honks of tankers lifting fuel from the farms.

“Presently, we have one motorable road within the community which has been converted to a parking lot by tankers, leaving us to suffer on other deplorable roads,” he said.

Imitini, who decried the various environmental abuses in the community, noted that over 99 per cent of residents now regret living in the neighbourhood which comprises other private estates.

“At a time, the serenity of this area was very good, but now 99 per cent of people are regretting because whenever the trucks come to lift petrol from the tank farms, they block everywhere. We  pray that there won’t be any case of  fire outbreak, because it will go from one truck to  another and there is no fire station here,” he noted.

Expressing fear over possible fire disaster in the community, a tenant, Lizy Olaoluwa, recalled that no fewer than 15 persons died and many others wounded during the gas explosions that rocked  Abule-Ado in 2019 and  Baruwa area of Ipaja Lagos, last year.

According to her, the Baruwa incident came some weeks after gas explosions claimed lives and destroyed property in Ajao Estate, Abule-Ado and Iju/Ajuwon, a border community between Lagos and Ogun states.

She also cited a 2020 Apapa tank farm fire, which burnt for three days before it could be put out by the fire service. Olaoluwa called on the federal and state governments to relocate some of the tank farms to new sites in Ibeju-Lekki, where the state government already proposed for them.

According to a source in the Lagos State Ministry of Energy and Mineral Resources, there are about 600 gas stations, 2,000 petrol stations and over 50 tank farms in the state.

“The last time we did the count, it was over 2,000 petrol stations. Right now, we have new ones coming. We are doing inventory of all gas stations in the state. We are doing the count again. The state government has already engaged a consultant for that – to map all gas and petrol stations in the state and put it on Lagos map,” the source said.

Findings by Saturday Tribune showed that between 2019 and August 2021, Lagos State recorded 53 gas explosion incidents, with over 200 deaths and loss of property and valuables worth billions of naira.

 

Lagos blows hot

While the residents of the affected communities wait with bated breath for relief, the supremacy battle between the state government and an agency of the Federal Government, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) may prolong their expectation and keep them in imminent danger longer than necessary.

The battle between the duo has seen action and counter-action on some tank farms and petrol stations which the state government dubbed illegal for alleged wrong location and lack of planning permit.

The crisis boiled over recently when the state government, through the Lagos State Physical Planning Permit Authority (LASPPPA),  sealed some tank farms in Ijegun-Egba and some petrol stations along Lekki-Epe Expressway for alleged offences ranging from non-adherence to the state’s physical planning laws, non-availability of building permit, siting of the stations without recourse to approved distance between one and the other and building of the highly-inflammable structures within residential areas.

The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Dr Idris Salako, said the ministry was statutorily mandated to regulate all forms of physical developments in all parts of the state, adding that the ministry would not tolerate any physical development in the state, particularly petroleum tank farms and filling stations, without planning permit.

The commissioner stated that the law, being clear on the mandate, did not leave room for any conflict of interest, noting that this was buttressed by a Supreme Court judgment which specifically placed the responsibility of physical development within the confines of a state in the state entity.

He decried a situation where the DPR allegedly skipped the prerequisite for planning permit and went ahead to issue licences to facilities whose constructions were not approved by LASPPPA and which consequently did not have stage certification or certificate of completion.

 

DPR spoils for war

In what appears be a no-retreat, no-surrender reaction, the DPR countered the sanction and reopened the petroleum products depots shut down by LASPPPA in Ijegun-Egba, Satellite Town  and other parts of the state.

According to the Zonal Operations Controller, DPR, Lagos Zone, Mr Ayorinde Cardoso, the state agency lacks the constitutional power to shut the depots because the industry is under the Exclusive List.

Cardoso also explained  that the sealing of the tank farms by the authorities in Lagos could have led to a huge disruption of the supply of petroleum products across the country if the facilities were not quickly unsealed.

The affected depots are Wosbab Energy Solutions, Emadeb Energy Services Ltd, Mao Petroleum Ltd, Menj Oil Ltd., Oceanpride Energy Services Ltd, A.A. Rano Nigeria Ltd, AIPEC Oil and Gas Ltd and First Royal Oil Ltd.

According to him, Ijegun-Egba has 13 tank farm operators which receive between 35 per cent and 40 per cent of petroleum products coming to Lagos before being transported to other areas.

Cardoso said: “We were told that LASPPPA sealed the depots for not having their planning permits. We don’t believe that is the right approach because these people are providing service to the nation and if you disrupt that service, there will be fuel scarcity everywhere. This is why we are taking a proactive action to immediately reopen the tank farms and if LASPPPA has any issue with the operators, they should come to us and see how it can be resolved.”

He pointed out that oil and gas business is a regulated environment, adding that from the 1999 Constitution,  oil and gas are matters within the exclusive legislative List.

He said: “The Federal Government of Nigeria, through the National Assembly, is endowed with exclusive power to execute any item on the Exclusive List. And arising from that constitutional power, the National Assembly enacted the Petroleum Act of 1969.

“This act regulates all matters relating to petroleum such as importation, handling, storage, distribution of petroleum and petroleum products and other flammable oils.

“This act also provides the granting of licence to import, handle, store, sell and distribute any petroleum product in Nigeria.”

He said as a result of this, all persons that engage in the business are licensed by the Minister of Petroleum Resources through DPR.

He explained that the DPR collaborates with other relevant federal and state agencies for requisite permits and approvals before the issuance of licences.

Lagos, however, would have none of Cardoso’s claim.

Salako said it was worrisome that the state government, in its effort to ensure orderly, organised and sustainable development, would seal illegal and unapproved tank farms and filling stations only for the DPR to go ahead and unseal them.

“We urge the Federal Government agency to desist from this untoward act and join us in encouraging promoters of these facilities to respect the law by ensuring that their structures have all necessary physical planning approvals,” he said.

To arrest the situation, a source told Saturday Tribune that apart from proliferation of petrol and gas stations in the metropolis, tank farms have become a big challenge to the state government, noting that they now exist in areas solely meant for residential such as Satellite Town and Apapa.

The source added that what his ministry had been doing was centered on working with the Ministry of Physical Planning to ensure that before granting owners of tank farms and petrol stations planning permits, the state government would have the input of the Fire Service, Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency and Safety Commission.

“We would look at your site, location, suitability, hazard’s tendency,” the source said.

 

Residents take case to Sanwo-olu

Seeing that their community is gradually becoming a slum, residents of Satellite Town recently stormed the office of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, demanding an immediate relocation of the facilities.

The residents, including septuagenarians, also demanded revocation of approvals issued to new container terminals and relocation of existing ones, to prevent further loss of lives and property within the axis, which the Federal Government designed as residential.

The protesters, who came with foods and displayed placards with different inscriptions, lamented that aside from loss of lives, the activities of the tank farms and container terminal operators, had continuously subjected them to untold hardship.

Some of the placards displayed by the protesters read: “No to new approval of container terminal in Satellite Town, Ijegun-Egba”; “Tanker driver kills people daily in Satellite”; “Must we die before government listens to us?” and “New tank farm is a danger to our lives.”

One of the septuagenarians, Captain Adebayo Adekoya (retd), disclosed that he and other residents could no longer sleep at night due to the loud sound from the horn of tankers lifting fuel from the tank farms.

He added the tank farms have damaged the roads and disrupted the drainage system in Satellite Town, leaving the area with flooding throughout the year.

He said “as we speak, residents use rain boots in their houses because of persistent flooding.”

On why new and existing licenses should be revoked, another resident lamented that the oil tankers had damaged the roads within the axis.

Governor Imitini said the tank farms were against the will of the people, adding that the operators, who he described as members of the ‘oil cabal’ that has refused to relocate the facilities to an expanse of land allocated for such activities in Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.

He said the residents’ complaints got the the attention of the National Assembly, whose representatives visited the scene but only ended up advising that the residents and tank farms should co-exist.

“They told us that because the owners of these tank farms have spent a lot of money in establishing them, residents should co-exist with the facilities. They cherish investment more than human lives,” he said.

 

What the law says

Planning permit under section 102 of the Lagos State Urban  and Regional Planning and Development Law 2019 means an approval or assent given for the time being, to a development and includes layouts, or subdivision plan, building control authorization given at construction and post construction stage.

Planning permit is needed to ensure that structures get built in the right way and place; it helps to balance the development in the state such as new homes, factories, offices, schools, places of worship, health facilities and transportation routes.; and ensures that development and growth are environmentally sustainable.

One of the leaders of the Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MOMAN), Mr Adebanji Oyebanji, explained that the crisis of planning permit between the state government and the DPR was part on the ongoing fiscal federation.

“As you know, the oil industry is a federal concern under the DPR, while the issue of planning permit is under  the Lagos State law under the Ministry of Physical Planning,” he said.

According to him, the two goverment agencies should look for a way to work together.

Asked why some petrol stations’ operators could not produce their planning permit before LASPPPA sealed them a few weeks ago, Oyebanji said the agency’s officials were requesting for planning permit from petrol stations built about 50 years ago.

He said: “If they say that new petrol stations, that would not be a problem. For Mobil petrol stations that have been there for over 40 years, state officials just came and  asked: Where is the original permit? Where is this, where is that?

“It is a big challenge between the Ministry of Physical Planning and the DPR. We (oil marketers) are always in the middle of the crisis.”

He advised the Ministry of Physical Planning and the management of the DPR to come together and talk to each another.

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