Enugu governor proffers solution to tanker explosions in Nigeria

Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State has suggested that enforcement of anti-spill locks on petrol tankers can address frequent tanker explosions in Nigeria.

Mr Mbah spoke on Tuesday when he received in his office the Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Zubaida Umar, and her team.

Increased tanker explosions

There has been an increase in petrol tanker explosions across Nigeria in recent times.

PREMIUM TIMES earlier reported that a petrol tanker, on Saturday, exploded at the Ugwu Onyeama section of the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway killing several people and injuring others.

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) later confirmed that 18 people died in the incident.

A week before the Enugu incident, another petrol tanker had exploded along a highway in Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State.

Over 70 people were killed in the Niger explosion.

Another petrol-laden tanker exploded, on Monday, in a town which shares a boundary with Agaie and Lapai Local Government Areas of Niger State.

Meanwhile, on Sunday, President Bola Tinubu ordered FRSC and agencies in charge of enforcing traffic rules to implement measures to prevent recurring petrol tanker explosions in Nigeria.

How anti-spill lock will end petrol tanker explosions

At the meeting with the NEMA officials, who were in Enugu to flag-off the distribution of intervention items to the survivors of the Ugwu Onyeama tanker incident, Mr Mbah explained how the anti-spill lock works.

“As I stated when I visited the scene, we have disasters that we know that we obviously could not have envisaged or predicted; and when they happen, we trigger all the responses that we have set up.

“I did call on the law enforcement agencies, particularly the FRSC, to ensure the enforcement of the anti-spill lock,” he stated.

Continuing, the governor explained: “This is because if we have anti-spill locks on those tankers carrying inflammable products like petrol and automotive gas oil, we will then be able to mitigate such disasters because even if the tanker falls, it will still not spill.

“But what happened in Enugu (on Saturday) was a function of the spill of petrol that got into other cars, and they got ignited.

“So, I will always want to use this opportunity again to reiterate my call on the law enforcement agencies to ensure strict enforcement of the anti-spill lock on all our petroleum product tankers. It is extremely important.”

What we’re doing for survivors

Mr Mbah said that his administration was doing “everything humanly possible” to ensure that the survivors got full medical treatment, assuring that the government would foot the survivors’ medical bills.

“We have those (survivors) that are at the National Orthopaedic Hospital, Enugu; University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital and the Enugu State University of Science and Technology Hospital, Park Lane, and we are taking care of the bills,” he said.

The governor thanked President Tinubu and NEMA for their empathy and quick response to the tanker explosion in the state.

“We are deeply grateful for the support you have also provided. It is also a demonstration of the partnership between the federal government and the sub-nationals in this case, which we would want to entrench. We provided the ever-needed logistics to ensure that these items get to those who are most in need of them,” he said.

NEMA speaks

Speaking at the event, the Director-General of NEMA, Mrs Umar commiserated with the government and people of Enugu State over the fatal tanker explosion in the state.

“The increasing cases of tanker fire explosions across Nigeria are not only devastating but also a clog on the wheel of progress and economic development of our communities.

“Such incidents have negatively impacted lives, property, the environment, and have a grave potential of slowing down our developmental strides,” the director-general stated.

She hailed Mr Mbah for showing leadership during and after the disaster.

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“I wish to commend you for the timely visit to the scene of the incident and various decisions made, including ensuring that maximum medical attention was given to the survivors,” she said.

The director-general explained that the flag-off of the relief assistance to the survivors of the explosion was a collaborative initiative between various governments and the agency to support the survivors.

“It is the collective responsibility of all tiers of government to provide support to disaster victims; hence, NEMA is therefore complementing the efforts of the state government,” she added.

Mrs Umar announced a donation of relief materials to the survivors of the Saturday tanker explosions.

She listed some of the relief materials to include 200 25kg bags of rice, 200 cartons of spaghetti, 20 cartons of five-litre vegetable oil, 20 cartons of seasoning and 20 cartons of tomato paste and medical consumables.