The petroleum depot and tank farm owners in the country have expressed support for the ongoing road safety campaign by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) against tanker related crashes, pledging to play their own roles in the campaigns to ensure safety on the nation’s highways.

Rising from a one-day consultative meeting with the Corps Marshal of FRSC, Boboye Oyeyemi at the Sheraton Hotel and Towers Lagos, the representatives of the owners of the various depots and tank farms commended the Corps Marshal for his untiring efforts at making the nation’s roads safer, stating that they are inspired by such commitment to rally support in the collective efforts to make the campaign a success.

According to them, all relevant road safety stakeholders have been convinced that if other agencies had been displaying the same enthusiasm and commitment to safety of lives and property as the FRSC has done since the nation started experiencing the menace of tanker related crashes some few weeks back, the challenges could have been more easily addressed. They further stressed that the various stakeholders’ meetings convened by the Corps Marshal as well as the National Summit on haulage operations organised to draw up a plan of action for implementation were commendable leadership commitment, resolving therefore, to key into the campaign by effectively playing their own roles.

Consequently, after exhaustive deliberations on the state of petroleum tanker safety in the country and careful review of the last crashes involving tankers, the petroleum depot and tank farm owners agreed on the need for all tanker operators to fix safety valves at the truck manhole and discharge points, which have been identified to be responsible for oil spillage and fire incidents noticed whenever tankers fell. According to them, the frequent cases of oil spillage which occurred whenever tankers fell in parts of the country were due to the locally constructed tankers that lacked the correct valves, which led to cases of oil spillage.

To avert further inferno, they resolved to introduce stiffer measures on all tanker drivers such that anyone that fails to meet the minimum safety standard would be denied loading rights at the depot, while his information would be sent electronically through the FRSC captured data system to all other depots across the country to prevent him from using any of the facilities.

Furthermore, they resolved that truck tagging and programming system should henceforth be embraced by all at the loading depots in Apapa for effective management of gridlocks normally experienced in Apapa area.

“Petroleum tanker driver union (PTD) must ensure that trucks that are not programmed to load are disallowed from getting to the depot area,” the communiqué stated.

It added: “Container carrying trucks must be properly latched to its trailer, while appropriate authority should always be contacted to ensure regular maintenance of the roads along Trinity, Tin Can Island and second gate, as bad road has been identified as the main cause of tankers falling in the areas.

“The menace of old trucks should be properly reviewed by relevant stakeholders at all levels through fleet renewal programme, while enforcement should be strengthened with diligent prosecution of offenders to serve as deterrence to others.”

The participants also called on the NNPC and other owners of depots to align their operations with the general programme and policies to ensure that vehicles don’t unnecessarily queue when there are no products available for them and best practice is adopted in product payment.

The Federal and state governments were also called upon to intervene in addressing the menace of area boys whose activities have become a source of concern as witnessed in parts of Lagos. “A special team to visit the various depots and farms to ascertain the capacity of their holding bays should be constituted, while collection of dues on the road by the various tax agencies should be discouraged to avoid causing gridlocks,” the Communiqué stated.

“More enlightenment programmes should be extended to the various depots by the FRSC to spread the road safety messages to all levels of depot operations,” it added.

The consultative meeting which attracted various stakeholders in petroleum depot and tank farms around Lagos and its environs had in attendance, Mr Victor Enebeli, Secretary, Committee of Directors, Depot Owners Ibafo Apapa; Comrade Tayo Aboyeji, South West Public Secretary, PTD-NUPENG; Obafemi Olawore, Executive Secretary, Major Marketers Association of Nigeria and Olufemi Adewale, Executive Secretary, Depot and Petroleum Marketers Association, among others.

Also in attendance were some principal officers of the FRSC including the Deputy Corps Marshals in charge of Operations, Abu Adei and that of Motor Vehicle Administration, Theophilus Charles as well as the Zonal Commanding Officer, Zone 2, Lagos, Nseobong Charles Akpabio, among others.

•Photo shows FRSC chiefs at the event.

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