Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola
Lagos State Governor Babatunde Fashola has urged the Federal Government to relocate fuel discharging facilities (tank farms) from Tin Can Island.
The port complex houses MRS Oil tank farm/depot which exploded on Wednesday, injuring about four persons.
Fashola spoke during a visit to the scene of the fire on Thursday, adding that the incident was a wake-up call for the government.
He said, “The nation presently does not have the wherewithal to contain any sort of fire incident involving oil installation facilities. I don’t think we should wait, this is enough”
The governor also called on the Federal Government to live up to its responsibility of managing maritime safety, fuel management, fuel importation, port management.
He said, “Government must understand that its business is the welfare of its people and it cannot deliver that by amateurish standard. This place was not designed for fuel discharge, but they have converted it for that with all sorts of permits given by regulatory agencies, DPR, PPMC.
“I think that agencies of the Federal Government must step up their safety compliance levels, everybody must do his job and that is short term. The long term is to relocate all these facilities away from residential areas. Lagos state is ready to provide these facilities.”
Fashola urged the Federal Government to take advantage of the Oil and Gas Section at the Lekki Free Trade Zone in its relocation plan.
In a related development, Fashola said the government would not allow immediate reconstruction of Oko Baba Plank Market which was razed by fire on Tuesday.
The governor said the government would, instead, redesign the entire area and make it compliant with modern trend.
He spoke during a visit to Oko Baba to commiserate with the residents of the area on the inferno.
Fashola said, “First I am going to send the Ministry of the Environment to come here and clear all the drainage, clean the place up and nobody should build here without town planning approval. We won’t let you do it.
“We need to sit down and talk on how we want this place to be. We need to separate sawmill business from residential area. Do we want to do everything here or get a place where we can divide our logs and bring the planks here to sell.
“We are preparing a place with machines that can saw your logs. We are also constructing 3, 000 housing units there for you to live in. There will be water and power supply among other things.
“Government has done its bit; it is now left for you to decide whether you want to live in this dirty place or move to where you have everything to enhance your work.”