18082019 -Anxiety over " Next Level" Ministers

PAGE 28—SUNDAY VANGUARD, AUGUST 18, 2019
PARADISE LOST!
•
Satellit
ellite e Town
frets over
•A tank farm under
construction in strictly
residential area.
invasion of
2.5trillion
litres of petr
trol
By Godfrey Bivbere, Ebuka Oko
& Gideon Nnaemezie
Residents of Satellite Town, who,
before 2014, lived in the serene
environment, are today living in
fear following the siting of 50 tank
farms housing over 2.5 trillion litres of
petroleum along the water-front of the
community.
Satellite Town stretches from Alakija to
Abule-Ado along the Badagry
Expressway down to the waterside and
beyond.
Following the location of the tank
farms in the town, life for the residents
has taken a turn for the worse, not only
because of the dangers associated with
the tank farms but also the takeover of
all the connecting streets by tankers.
The 50 tank farms are operated by oil
marketing companies and, according to
industry sources, each of the farms has
the capacity to store between 30 million
and 60 million litres of petroleum
products.
At estimated 50 million litres of
petroleum products per tank farm, the
volume of petroleum products of the 50
tank farms will bring the total volume
to 2.5 trillion litres.
The Chairman of Satellite Forum,
Michael Imitini, in an interview with
Sunday Vanguard, said the community
is a residential area where no industrial
activity should take place.
He said: “Satellite town is a residential
area. It is not an industrial area. From
1960 when we got our independence,
Satellite Town has been a residential
area. And by 1966 and 1967, when some
houses were built, they were mainly
built for legislators and individual
occupants.
“Approvals were also given by former
Head of State, General Olusegun
Obasanjo. That is what brought estates
like Chevron, Nigeria National
Petroleum Corporation, NNPC, and
National Provident Fund, NPF.
“In the first place, we don’t know how
they came about the approval for tank
farms. They have turned the area into a
chaotic one such that it can take two to
three hours to complete a journey from
Waterside to Fin-Niger that should
normally take five minutes. This is due
to the gridlock.
Emergencies
“This gridlock also affects us in the
case of emergencies as there are no
alternative routes. Students,
entrepreneurs and workers alike arrive
late at their various destinations due to
this problem.
“Our plea is that we don’t need
additional tank farms in Satellite Town.
And we are asking the
Federal Government to
look into the activities of
the 12 marketing
companies that have the
over 50 tank farms. We
are saying that they
should get a deadline to
relocate out of Satellite
Town”.
Imitini condemned what
he described as on-going
plans by a company to
site more tank farms in
the area.
“They are in the final
stages of the review now.
They didn’t communicate
with the community. The
questionnaire they
claimed to have
administered was not
given to the community
and nobody ever laid
hands on that
questionnaire for
Environmental Impact
Assessment, EIA, that was said to have
been conducted”, he stated.
“And most of their designs and
We want
government to wake
up to its
responsibility and
plan things very
well because people
cannot just come
and site industries
everywhere. These
things have to be
regulated
whatever
thing they said that they
were going to put in place when the
tank farm is at 95 percent completion
are not up to standard”.
Imitini stressed that the lives of over
one million residents in
the area are at risk.
This is because,
according to him, there
had been two near-fatal
fire outbreaks that
claimed six lives.
Fire-fighting
equipment
These tank farms, it was
learnt, do not have
adequate fire-fighting
equipments thereby
exacerbating the fear of
residents in case of any
emergency situation.
For instance, Sunday
Vanguard gathered that
during one of the two
emergency situations of
the past, Julius Berger
Construction Company
had to come to the rescue
by providing its firefighting
equipment.
The Chairman pointed out that five
bonded terminals are soon to become
•Trucks blocking access road.
operational in Satellite Town
thereby complicating the situation.
On his part, the Secretary of Satellite
Town Forum, STF, Akorede Kamal,
faulted government for not doing a
proper check and evaluation of the
environment before issuing licenses to
tank farm owners to operate in the area.
He declared that the community is
“sitting on a keg of gun powder “that
could explode in an instant.’’
Kamal called for adequate measures to
nip disaster in the bud and also bring
some form of relief to residents.
Volatile investments
Also speaking, a member of the forum
and Chairman of Media Committee,
Ndubisi Okafor, called on government
to wake up to its responsibility and save
the community.
“We want government to wake up to its
responsibility and plan things very well
because people cannot just come and
site industries everywhere. These things
have to be regulated. You don’t come to
a fully built residential area and start
building investments which are very
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