Owners of petroleum products tank farms in Jegun Egba, Satellite Town, Lagos, say they have spent over N1.5 billion to fix roads infrastructure and do other palliatives in their area of operation, adding that such intervention is to show their commitment as responsive and responsible business people.
The businessmen restate their commitment towards ensuring the safety of lives and property of the people of their host community, stating that they want to ensure that the needful is done in the community.
They say palliative measures are being taken to address the hardship being experienced by the residents of the community due to the activities of trucks and tankers serving them.
Ijegun Egba plays host to over 12 petroleum products tank farms whose activities, especially the influx of tankers and trucks along major access roads to the community, have contributed to infrastructural and safety challenges to the residents of the area.
Speaking in Lagos at a stakeholders’ engagement meeting, Debo Olujimi, chairman of Tank Farm Owners Association and CEO of Emadeb Energy Services, states that the association is partnering the Lagos State government, the Federal Government, the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) and other relevant stakeholders to see how to address the safety and infrastructural challenges confronting Ijekun Egba people.
Olujimi explains that the meeting was convened to enable stakeholders brainstorm and see that issues of infrastructure and safety of lives and property of the people were taken care of.
He says, “Today, an average of between 20 -30 million litres of petroleum products move out of Ijegun. And really, that is a serious economic hub. On the average, every week, that means almost about 200-250 million litres of petroleum products come out from Ijegun.
“Therefore, we are trying to avoid a situation where the host community will be having issues with the business owners and that is why we have been doing everything possible. We are trying to partner with the Lagos State Government, the federal government, the DPR and every other stakeholder to make sure that all infrastructure and things that have to do with safety are addressed.”
He adds: “Issue of safety is the number one to us. Roads have to be accessible for us to be able to operate. As responsible business people we want to make sure that what is happening in Apapa does not happen in Ijegun, and that is why we are doing everything possible.”
He lists some of the measures being taken by the depot owners to include effective traffic management in order to avert accident; provision of alternative roads to ease traffic on Marwa Road, a major access road to the community; construction of standard fire station in the community; construction of drainages, and sensitisation of the members of the community on safety and fire-fighting, among others.
Also speaking at the event, Wole Akinyosoye, the deputy director/zonal operations controller, Lagos, DPR, says the agency was on top of safety issues in the community.
“We need to put it on record that whatever we are doing in Ijegun, DPR is on top of it regarding safety. Like I told you in my speech, we have this contingency plans and collective safety activation. How does that work? It works by pooling together all the facilities –hardware and human resources; and we normally do drills ones in three months in order to establish the state of readiness and alertness,” he states.
On his part, the chairman of Satellite Town Forum, Governor Imitini, who earlier stated the grievances of the community concerning the activities of the depot owners alongside some demands, however, describes the meeting as satisfactory.
