To prevent a repeat of the Niger Tanker disaster, which killed 86 people and injured 55 more, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority has made it clear that it intends to examine a review of current safety regulations.
This was said by Farouk Ahmed, the Authority Chief Executive of the regulatory body, who visited the tanker explosion site on Sunday.
Farouk warned Nigerians against hurrying to the scene of tanker mishaps in order to prevent accidents that could result in the loss of life and property. He also expressed the authority’s condolences to the families of the deceased and the Niger State government.
Mustapha Lamorde, the organization’s Executive Director for Health, Safety, Environment, and Community, represented Ahmed.
Ahmed wished the injured people a speedy recovery and clarified that while the industry already has standard operating procedures and guidelines that needed to be followed, those regulations could need to be reexamined.
While expressing his wish for the injured to recover quickly, Ahmed pointed out that even though the industry now has standard operating procedures and guidelines, they might need to be reexamined.
“I think awareness is the most important thing,” he stated. People need to understand the risks that this presents, particularly in the event of an accident such as that. They also need to understand the perils of explosions. In order to prevent individuals from approaching the area when mishaps like this occur, we must raise public awareness.
Additionally, we have rules and standard operating practices. Within the industry, we have mandated training that promotes safety consciousness. As a result, we will review it and work with important stakeholders.
“To ensure that we raise public awareness and work together to prevent this from happening again, we have the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners here, NUPENG, IPMAN, Petroleum Tanker Drivers, Federal Road Safety Corps, and other important stakeholders,” he said.
In order to decide on steps to stop similar mishaps in the future, he also emphasized the necessity of a thorough report on the event.
“According to what we have learned, there was an accident yesterday (Saturday), and as a result of the accident, there was a spill, and people were scooping fuel, which led to the incident that caused many lives to be lost,” he continued.
In his remarks, Yusuf Othman, the National President of NARTO, stated that accidents were typically caused by environmental, mechanical, and human causes. He also claimed that people were not taking the government’s efforts to raise awareness seriously.
“However, I will suggest that we raise awareness through the conventional institutions in a region where there are numerous petroleum-related operations taking place. Religious leaders and village chiefs ought to participate in raising awareness.
In addition, I would want to suggest that the Niger State government set up a fire station here. This incident would have been arrested if there had been a fire station nearby. This is a result of the heavy trucking activity that is occurring here. Because, as everyone knows, trucks transport all petroleum products in this nation.
Therefore, he continued, “I will recommend that awareness be increased through the traditional institutions in an area where there is high trucking activity, just like this.”
Speaking on behalf of NARTO Executive Secretary Aloga Ogbogo, Othman emphasized that because the country was already in sorrow, now was not the time to assign blame and that every effort should be made to ensure that such incidents were reduced to the lowest possible level.
Additionally, Malut Abubakar, the Deputy National Chairman, noted that the group had previously written to the government about the poor condition of the roads.
Therefore, our primary issue is that the government ought to intervene by constructing a really nice road. This would not have occurred if it weren’t for the road conditions. Because we requested in writing that the Kaduna State government call the road contractors to the Kaduna Bypass the last time we performed this task in Kaduna.
Additionally, there were other incidents there in which the government stepped in by requesting that the contractors come level the area. “And they succeeded,” he emphasized.
According to reports, the crew also went to Yar’Adua Memorial Hospital, where some injured people were taken in an ambulance. Dr. Musa Lafaruwa, the hospital’s head of hospital services, provided an update on the condition of the injured.
