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YET ANOTHER TANKER EXPLOSION!

The relevant authorities must do more to contain the scourge
The death last Saturday night of 88 persons at Dikko Junction, Niger State, following the explosion of a tanker laden with petrol has provoked the usual outrage and promises from relevant authorities. But we have been on this road several times before. “The President is saddened by what has happened, and he is worried to the extent that he has said a high-powered committee is set up to look at these incidents,” Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said when he led a federal government delegation on a condolence visit to the Emir of Suleja, Alhaji Awwal Ibrahim. Indeed, in the last few months, over 265 people have lost their lives to similar tragic incidents.
While we commiserate with the families of the deceased, the frequency of these accidents should compel a more serious action than establishing a committee just to be seen as doing something. In the wake of recent calamities, there were conversations about the nightmare that fuel tanker drivers have become in the country, but nothing has been done to tackle the menace. In most countries, as we have repeatedly highlighted, petroleum products are transported through pipelines and not by putting thousands of vehicles on the road every day as we do in Nigeria.
The number of fatalities arising from petrol tanker
explosions on our roads is getting increasingly high. That people would be so desperate to rush to scoop fuel after such accidents should compel a public enlightenment campaign. Perhaps because of the high number of fatalities from this latest explosion, the conversation has resumed but if past experiences are any guide, nothing is likely to happen in what has become a vicious cycle of avoidable tragedies.
In four separate incidents within a spate of one week in 2015, no fewer than 100 people were killed with properties worth hundreds of millions of Naira destroyed. Just about a month later, 85 people died in Onitsha, Anambra State, when a petrol- laden tanker lost control and rammed into a public motor park. Several buildings, vehicles and properties worth millions of Naira were consumed by the fire. Scores of others were left with different degrees of burns. In 2020, which witnessed the highest number of these accidents, there were 1,531 petrol tanker crashes resulting in 535 deaths and 1,142 injuries, according to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC). That is aside the billions of Naira that is lost to such fire incidents and the survivors who bear scars for the rest of their lives.
To identify and address the factors responsible for these incessant petroleum tanker crashes and explosions, the Major Energy Marketers Association of Nigeria (MEMAN) last year launched a stakeholders’ initiative. Institutions involved include the Depot and Petroleum Products Marketers Association of Nigeria (DAPPMAN), the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) and other key players. Issues identified as causes of these accidents included “drivers’ mental alertness and attitude”, and overloading of trucks, some up to 66,000 litres, far exceeding safe limits.
Now that another committee is being established by the federal government to address the same problem, we hope that at the end of the exercise, there would be concrete measures to put an end to these avoidable fuel tanker explosions that continue to take the lives of our people.