The Lagos State Government has said retail gas operators or marketers operating within the State without putting in place and adhering to proper safety measures would be shut down.
The Director-General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr. Lanre Mojola stated this while speaking at the opening ceremony of Oil and Gas Stakeholders’ Safety Summit with the theme; “Safe Retail Gas Operation in Lagos State”, adding that the move is to guide against avoidable gas explosions.
Mojola, who was represented at the event by the Technical Adviser of the Safety Commission, Mr. Seun Awojobi explained that the whole essence of the summit is to train practitioners in the sector on how to handle LPG in better and safer ways.
He said, “We know of past incidents that had happened, some ranging from industrial to residential accidents where several lives were lost and the Safety Commission’s mandate is to ensure that the lives and property of all residents in the State are safe and protected”.
“Event like this is designed to bring the practitioners in the liquefied gas sector together and train them on best practices around the usage of gas and see how we can guide against gas explosions and loss of more lives”, he added
The Director-General maintained that the State Government has identified about 2,500 gas retail shops across the State and it is working with the association to weed out marketers that are selling without proper safety measures.
According to him, “The government has done the enumeration on retail gas outlets in Lagos with the intent of scaling up their safety measures for the ones that are open to scaling. For others that we believe will pose harm or danger to the environment, we are shutting them down”.
He informed the gathering that several incidents had occurred in the past and the summit was designed to further prevent avoidable incidents with more training and enlightenment for operators and stakeholders.
Most participants at the Summit were of the view that gas explosions usually occur when the operators failed to imbibe the culture of safety and follow the laid down guidelines and regulations on the handling of hydrocarbon.
They, therefore, urged gas retail shops and end users to understand the proper safety handling measures and follow the guidelines to ensure that their operations are done within the confines of the law so that lives and properties are not endangered.
