The Senate has summoned the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) to find out the true condition of the country’s refineries.

At plenary on Wednesday Senator Gbenga Ashafa moved the motion for the investigation of the state of the refineries that have not been operational for years now.

The motion was moved with an intention to address the incessant fuel tanker tragedies on Nigeria’s highways.

In the last one month, there have been several incidents of tanker explosions and subsequent fire outbreak that has claimed lives and led to the loss of property work millions of Nigeria.

Senator Ashafa urged the Senate to address, with urgency, the repeated incidents of fuel tanker crashes in some Nigerian states.

“Within the space of one week, four fuel tanker accidents occurred in two major cities in Nigeria, claiming lives and destroying property,” he said.

The senator further pointed out that the tragedies would have been avoided if the refineries were functional.

Lack of adequate maintenance of the refineries in Nigeria has led to so much reliance on imported petroleum products, making the nation the only major oil producing country in Africa that imports finished petroleum products from other countries.

To move the products from their landing states to other states, marketers rely solely on tanker.

On June 2, several shops and vehicles were destroyed by fire after a tanker loaded with petrol veered off a bridge at Iyana Ipaja area of Lagos State and exploded.

The fire burnt the line of shops, covering over 50 metres by the road side.

Few days after, another fuel tanker explosion occurred in Idimu area of Lagos State.

Reports say the tanker fully loaded with automotive gas oil otherwise known as diesel exploded around Idimu at about 12:30 a.m. on June 6.

During his political campaign, President Muhammadu Buhari promised to fix the refineries and shore-up its capacity to reduce and eventually end importation of finished products.

•Sourced from Channels TV. Photo shows Port Harcourt Refinery.

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