• FRSC blames reckless, unruly and underage drivers
From Okwe Obi, Abuja
Nigeria’s petroleum sector is going through turbulent times due to the perennial tanker explosion, which has resulted to the loss of over 500 lives and property worth billions of naira in one year.
This year alone, the country has witnessed about seven tanker explosions, beginning with the incident that took place in Agbor in Ika South Local Government Area of Delta State, in which five persons were killed.
Also, another blast happened at the Dikko Junction, Gurara Local Government Area of Niger State. At least 95 people died, over 70 persons were injured and about 20 shops were razed.
While the hue and cry was about to abate, Enugu State was the next port of call as not less than 18 persons were killed when a petrol-laden tanker exploded along the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway. This incident was attributed to brake failure.
On May 28, 2024, a similar incident occurred at Eleme Road in Port Harcourt, where five persons lost their lives and about 120 vehicles were burnt. In October 2024, there was a petrol tanker explosion that shattered Majiya town, Taura Local Government Area of Jigawa State. Over 100 people died and dozens injured.
Characteristically, the Minister of Petroleum Resources (Oil), Heineken Lokpobiri, governors and top government officials paid tributes to those that died and sympathised with their families and friends.
Lokpobiri, through his Special Adviser on Media and Communications, Nneamaka Okafor, directed the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to commence investigation into the circumstances that led to the incident.
“The minister has directed the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) to immediately commence a detailed investigation into the circumstances surrounding this unfortunate incident,” he said.
Up until now, the findings are yet to be made public.
Speaking on the economic implications, National President of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), Abubakar Maigandi Shettima, explained that for each petrol-ladden tanker explosion, N200 million goes down the drain. And when multiplied by the number of tanker explosions in one year, it amounts to over N2 billion.
He said: “The head truck alone is N100 million. The tank is about N40 million standard. The liquid inside is N50 million per truck. That is 45,000 litres.
“So, by the time you put together the figure is about N200 million per truck. So, when you see things like that, we the marketers are losing about N200 million.
“Our main concern is the loss of lives. Immediately you lose life, you have lost the whole thing. That is why we have been taking precautions anytime this kind of thing happens so that there will be no casualties.
“But the masses will still go to siphon the fuel that is why you see this kind of thing happening.”
He, however added: “We, the independent petroleum marketers, have been lucky. The trucks that have been involved in accidents are not our members’. Despite the fact that they are not our members, we sympathise with them.”
But the Public Education Officer, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Olusegun Ogungbemide, heaped the blame on the recklessness and unruly behaviour of tanker drivers and the shady deals of petroleum merchants. He also disclosed that wholesalers of petroleum products load beyond the 33,000 to 35,000 litres per truck, as stipulated.
According to him, a majority of tanker drivers do not have driver’s license and they ignore prescribed safety standards.
He said: “You will also agree with me that it is very difficult to do enforcement of loaded tankers on the highway so that what you are trying to prevent will not resort into a more devastating situation.
“If you have come across a recalcitrant driver, which most of them are, in the course of trying to stop them, they can even do worse. That is why we say the best way to tackle this problem is through public education, especially training and retraining of the drivers and policies like the safety to load.
“As I said, arresting a loaded tanker is always very difficult, especially when they are not willing to cooperate with you. You know how critical it is because of the kind of products they are carrying.
“Some of them could deliberately fall the trucks. I am sure you have seen where they deliberately block the roads in the course of enforcement and mobilize others and say nobody will move again.
“So, these are the critical crises we have anytime we are engaging with them and that is why we rely more on engaging their unions.
The Corps official, however, admitted that the country lacked sufficient driving schools for tanker drivers.
“You will agree with me that we have limited driving schools for tanker drivers compared to the ones for private vehicles and smaller vehicles. And when you look at tankers that are flying on Nigerian roads, you will be asking how these drivers got their driver’s license to drive.
“We have the standard for you to start driving tankers. We have the age for you to attain before engaging in driving tankers. At times, you see some of these boys behind the steering and you imagine what their age could be.”
Regardless of the daunting task, he assured Nigerians that the FRSC would continue to engage tanker owners and industry players to address the challenges.
“It has been an ongoing engagement. We have done enough collaborations with the various stakeholders that have one or two things to do with issue of tanker transportation. And especially the various unions, especially the NATO, NUPENG and IPMAN.
“We have had reasons to always get them engaged in public education. But there is no one that can be compared to annual training which, unlike major marketer, we have not really been able to have a better arrangements with independent marketers.
“The organised major marketers are well articulated in the way they conduct their affairs. So, it is easier to interface with them.
“The only thing we have succeeded in doing with the independent marketers is the area of public education which cannot be compared with annual training as it is being done for major marketers.
“Even till late last year, we still engaged them for the need of training and retraining. We will still want to continue this year.
“If you look at the series of crashes that have happened in the last few months you will agree with me that the primary crash never resulted to any fatality which is a universal thing.
“Vehicles can crash and that is why it is inevitable that there will be crash. But the greatest level in Nigeria is that we have been able to manage it because of the introduction of safe to load, that is meeting them at their loading point, where we have all of our operatives that check and make sure they have their minimum safety standards before they pull out.
“If you look at the enormity of the movement of all these trucks all over the federation we have an average of 1600 tankers that are being loaded daily. And we have almost 3000 moving daily across the nation.
“So, when people say incessant, and because of the lives of people that are involved we keep quiet because when you look at the ratio of crashes compared to the number of loaded vehicles that are moving all over the federation daily you will know that our intervention has really paid off. But when one crash occurs it claims lives.
“The last three crashes that have claimed so many lives you will see that at the point of crash there was no life lost until these scavengers get involve in scooping.
“The one that happened at Minna, there was no life lost when it happened. The Jigawa incident that claimed almost 200 lives, it was almost 24 hours after the crash that people started scooping that the inferno came up.
“Even the one that happened at Minna few days ago, there was no fatality because the vehicle did not even get involved in the crash, the bucket tilted off the body, it was after few hours that people started scooping.
“So, these are the efforts we have put in place with all the unions in line with our safe to load to make sure that you can hardly escape the windows of our scrutiny. But naturally you know you will always have people that will want to circumvent the efforts of everything in the system.
“I cannot say we have achieved it 100%. But at times, we use certified vehicles to go and load at the depot because they know our men are there. When they pull out of the depot, they trans load into another vehicle that did not meet up to minimum safety standards outside.”
On his part, the chief executive officer of Cabtree Limited, Sowunmi Olabode, an expert in oil and gas, said Nigeria must sit up to address the problem.
Olabode said: “To begin with, ferrying petroleum products through the pipelines is not new. We had pipelines that delivered finished product to the airport. It was around 1993 during the fuel crisis that it was sabotaged and has not worked since then.
“So, one of the things is that we the people say we want something but our actions speak the other. We say we want something to work and at the same time, we are celebrating those who are sabotaging the pipelines.
“So, we need to sit down as a people to determine what we really want. You cannot say you want to be healthy and be eating junk food.
“If I am running a business and the business is running at a loss one way or the other, I will pass that loss to the consumer.
“But the way I will pass it will be gradually. Whether it is pipeline vandalisation or people who are stopping construction workers from working, the ultimate losers are the people.
“So, whenever we celebrate people who are criminally minded but pose as freedom fighters, we are still the losers because the refineries that have not worked for decades is still hurting us.
“We need a reorientation of what is important versus what is not important. There is a lot of sentiment guiding us to what is not important at the expense to what is important.”