Residents of Satellite Town in Ijegun area of Lagos State have called for the relocation of the petroleum tank farms in the area, claiming they posed a threat to lives and property.
A catastrophe might be looming around the corner if the Nigerian government refuses to take serious actions to the ongoing fued between Tank Farm Owners and Satellite Town residents.
The Chairman of the Satellite Town Forum, Mr Michael Imitimi, made the call at an investigative hearing on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 organised by an Ad hoc Committee of the House of Representatives on incessant explosions in the area, in Abuja.
The Residents Lay their Fears & Complains
According to Imitimi, Satellite town is a residential area and the primary responsibility of government is to protect lives and property of the people.
He said that it had been a residential area since 1976, after it was earmarked and gazetted in 1975.
The peace and serenity enjoyed by the residents began its gradual destruction when they started seeing the building of tank farms in the community in 2012.
The ugly development has caused the community lots of problems, trauma and even deaths.
“The last incident that happened claimed lives, it is a very bad situation and we are appealing to the House not allow a recurrence,” he said.
There is a short road, he said, that links the town, the tank farms and eight other villages near the town and each time those big trucks come in hundreds to the area, residents always found themselves at the mercy of the farm owners.
“We have other eight villages across the water and we just have one seven-meter road that leads to the tank farm and the community.
Trucks come in hundreds and in chains and we can remember the fire incident in Onitsha; only one truck had multiplied effects and people died.
These trucks are ranging from 33,000 to 78,000 metric tons.
The issue before us is this: who has given this approval in a residential area?
It is our duty to live and when injustice becomes the law, then resistance becomes inevitable.
We are appealing to the House not to allow a re-occurrence. These tank farms must be relocated,” he said.
Tank Farm owners & Operators Raise brows
Earlier, Mr Adebowale Olujimi, Chairman, Ijegun-Egba Tank-farm Owners and Operators Association, told the committee that the owners obtained approval from all relevant authorities before the farms were built in 2013.
He argued that his members contributed to the economy by way of revenue through taxes, levies and charges to the federal, state and local governments, where the storage facilities were located.
He said that in 2013, the association spent N13 million on access road rehabilitation and N350 million on road construction to the tank farms.
Olujimi said that between 2014 and 2017, N147.5 million was spent for the rehabilitation of Marwa and Chipet roads in the area.
He said that the association had spent two billion naira addressing pressing infrastructural deficit in the area, including a fire station.
According to Olujimi, with over two trillion naira in assets, coupled with the servicing of loans from various institutions, a relocation of the tank farm will be a great shock to investors and financial institutions.
He also stated that the tank farms at Ijegun and Satellite Town in Lagos played pivotal parts in petroleum distribution in Nigeria, accounting for over 25% national petroleum product distribution, with a combined storage capacity of over 600 million litres.
He recommended that the Marwa Road, which is the only access road, be expanded to ease traffic and enhance security.
Olujimi also recommended that a central fire station be established in Ijegun to further assure the community of security of lives and property.
Government Resolve
The committee resolved to visit the area for assessment and reconvene another meeting to resolve the matter.
Initially, An ad-hoc committee had been set up by the House of Representatives to look into the petition by the residents of the affected communities on the threat posed by the Tank Farms to their lives and properties.
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