Ben Ezeamalu
They live near tank farms storing highly inflammable fuels in Lagos, running for dear lives regularly. Yet government won't act to make them safe
Hajia
Ilyasu was frail of health on that Sunday morning when screams of
"fire" rang out from a nearby tank farm. She found sudden strength in
her weakness.
"We rushed out of our houses and ran away
because nobody knew if the fire was from fuel," said Mrs. Ilyasu, a
resident at Creek View Estate, Kirikiri, a Lagos suburb.
Mrs. Ilyasu said that she joined scores of
other residents as they dashed towards the concrete-walled fence at the rear of
the estate - the only exit at the back of the estate.
They returned to their homes hours later after
the fire, which reportedly started in one of the diesel tanks, was brought
under control.
"Nobody wanted to take chances. It was
when we came back that we discovered it was diesel," Mrs. Ilyasu said.
Such sudden sprints for dear lives have, in
recent times, become a regular feature at the estate where oil marketers have
built large capacity tanks used in storing the highly flammable fuel and diesel
side by side with residential homes.
Techno Oil, Fatgbems Oil, Bovas Oil, Index
Petroleum and Swift Oil are some of the companies who have put up more than two
dozen tank farms for temporary storage of fuel, diesel, and kerosene.
A swampy land
About 15 years ago, the first settlers at the
Creek View estate began to develop their parcels of land.
"Back then everywhere was a swamp. There
was not a single tank farm here, and we even went to those areas to inspect the
land," said one of the earliest settlers at the estate, who declined to
state his name.
"Last year alone, they (the oil
companies) added up to eight tank farms. You can imagine how it feels for me
and my wife to retire to this kind of place," said the retiree, whose
one-storey building is less than 100 metres from the tank farms.
Another resident, Augustine Obi, said that the
tank farms had blocked all the drainage channels in the estate.
"We were here when they started building
all those tank farms," said Mr. Obi, who moved into the estate in 2003.
"We couldn't complain because the owners
of the land sold it to them" he added.
In 2005, Techno Oil Nigeria Limited arrived to
set up the first of what would later become a chain of oil depots.
"When Techno came, they came with a very
small tank," said Patrick Onyegbule, vice chairman of the estate's
resident association.
"Nobody knew they would have this kind of
monstrous things they have there today," he said.
"When the oil people come, they don't
value anybody around there. Even, if human can turn to oil, they can take
him," said Mr. Onyegbule.
Mr. Onyegbule said that they have written -
and are still writing - series of petitions to relevant authorities to draw
attention to their plight.
Environmental Laws
In August last year,
the Lagos State Environmental Protection Agency (LASEPA) sealed five of the oil
tank farms for "violating the state's environmental laws".
According
to LASEPA, oil companies were shut for siting tank farms less than 200 metres
away from residential area and operating tank farms without submission of
Environmental Impact Assessment report to the agency.
One week later, the agency gave the oil
companies the nod to reopen for business.
"Operators of those oil depots have
signed an MoU with the state government, in which it was agreed that a
consultant will conduct a post-impact assessment of the area to ascertain the
extent of environmental pollutions that may have been impacted," said
Rasheed Shabi, LASEPA's general manager, justifying the reason for allowing the
companies resume operations.
The MoU also mandated the oil companies to
construct water hydrant in front of their depots and purchase fire engines to
fight any outbreak of fire in the area "as safety measures because of
their closeness to residential buildings," according to Mr. Shabi.
Residents at the estate blame LASEPA, the
state government's environmental regulatory agency, for complacency.
"The government agencies and their
representatives seem like they don't know what they are doing," Mr.
Onyegbule said.
Efforts to speak with Mr. Shabi were not
successful. Interviews were scheduled and cancelled at the last minute on three
occasions.
'We came first'
On a recent afternoon, dozens of tankers lined
up the dusty road leading to one of the tank farms.
Five men sat on a wooden bench under a
makeshift tent and waited for the food vendor, an elderly woman who
periodically used her grease stained apron to wipe a sweaty brow.
A few feet away, two men shared a lighted
cigarette under an empty tanker as they awaited their turn to lift diesel.
Most of the oil depots managers outrightly
declined interview requests or gave other reasons to avoid responding to
questions.
A security officer at Swift Oil, whose name
tag bears R. Badmus, insisted on writing down the questions the depot manager.
He returned minutes later to say that
"Oga is not around".
"We didn't just drop for the sky, there
are provisions we met before we started operation here," he added, trying
to answer one of the questions.
The Chief Safety Officer at Techno Oil, who
identified himself as Mr. Hassan, said that safety drills are conducted
regularly for staff to prepare them for fire outbreaks.
"There is always the risk of fire as a
result of the three fire elements - heat, fuel and oxygen," Mr. Hassan
said.
On the fire incident which caused the nearby
residents to scamper to safety, Mr. Hassan said that it "was just a small
fire and we put it off even before fire fighters from the state arrived."
"You know you can't stop development,
people will always look for where to live. We have been here for 20 years, the
people who live around came and met us here."
Deadly farms
Douglas Agba, an environmentalist, said that
prior to the advent of the tank farms at Kirikiri, petroleum products were
piped from Atlas Cove jetty to "wherever you want it to go."
"The jetty is still there but it's no
longer functional," said Mr. Agba, the Programme Manager at Save
Environment and Health Organization, a non governmental organization.
"It will be difficult for the people to
relocate because the tank farms came and met them there.
"The tank farms are growing everyday.
They should be curtailed, relocated, or the people resettled to a safer
place."
To draw attention to their plight, Mr.
Onyegbule said that they had written petitions to the Nigerian Navy, the
Prisons, local government, and the Department for Petroleum Resources.
"None (of them) can deny receipt of out
petitions. None of them invited us," Mr. Onyegbule said.
When, in 2010, Clement Ikisikpo led other
members of the House of Representatives Committee on the Downstream Sector on
inspection of the tank farms; they "vowed" to recommend the
relocation of petroleum tank farms due to their close proximity to residential
houses, military and police barracks, "as well as other sensitive
areas."
At the Creek View estate, new property
developers have halted their operations due to the risk posed by the continued
presence of the farms, I.C.P Umeh, the estate's chairman said.
Last year, El-Elyon Learnigville, a nursery
and primary school sited less than 100 metres from the tank farms were forced
to relocated.
The school management declined requests for an
interview but a teacher told PREMIUM TIMES that the school's Parent Teachers
Association raised concerns over the nearness of the oil depots.
"The tank farms are too close for
comfort, and we have a lot of children in the school," she said.
The residents' association say they are no
longer waiting for government's unending promises and pronunciations.
They plan to open a Facebook page to try to
get the attention of international agencies.
They have also written a letter to be
"personally delivered" to the Petroleum Minister.
"This letter we have written, we are not
passing it through the normal channel. They (the oil companies) know how to
scheme and carpet everybody.
"We are using our man to try and get the
letter to the person at the top," said Mr. Onyegbule.
"We are struggling in a nation we think
we are citizens."
