A tanker with 33,000 litres of diesel felled to bad road and went up in flames in a sleepy residential area of Ijegun near Navy Town, Ojo area of Lagos State today, Wednesday, January 24, 2018.
On arrival at the scene, Business Hilights gathered that the state of the access road had been very bad since the building of tank farms on the axis and government or the farm owners has failed over time to repair the roads.
There about 16 privately owned tank farms that take products from berthed ocean going vessels along the creeks in Ijegun.
Further investigations show that owners of the tank farms are mainly marketers from the north who failed out in getting space at Ibru Jetty, Apapa.
Some Naval officers who were on standby said they have called for assistance for stronger protection over thousands of military wares stored underground in the Navy Town Ojo armament depot a distance which of about five nautical miles from the sprawling tank farm axis.
It was however, very hard to ascertain the extend of damages even as combined efforts of fire services managed to put the fire under control around the evening hours of 4PM.
Business Hilights recalls that in August 2016, residents of Ibasa/Ijegun Egba community, who are host communities to the tank farms, vowed to set ablaze tank farms sited within the community, until the Federal Government addresses their demands which include roads repairs, insecurity and pollution of water bodies by leakages from the farms.
There are about 15 tank farms sited within Ijegun/Ibasa, a riverrine community in Amuwo-Odofin Local Government had been polluting their waters.
The residents under the aegis of Ibasa/Ijegun Concerned Youth Movement, while issuing the threat in an interview with journalists, lamented that they had waited for six months to allow the Federal Government through the Department of State Services (DSS), to set up a ‘joint committee’ to resolve the face-off between the host community and the Tank farm owners.
On January 13, 2016, a meeting between the DSS, the tank farms, Omo-Oloko and the host community was held at the DSS head office in Lagos.
After the meeting, a communiqué signed by the parties present, was issued; stating that a joint committee comprising the community representatives and tank farm owners be setup to harmonize community demands.
It was learned that the DSS was expected to inaugurate the committee at his headquarters in Magodo.
President of the Movement, Mr. Taofeek Odunewu, argued that till date, no committee has been setup; “leaving us to our fate.”
He stated that since January this year, they had yielded to the communiqué issued, demanding that they “maintain peace pending the final resolution of the issue at stake.”
Secretary to the Movement, Mr. Kareem Adewale, explained that they yielded to the communiqué because they “are peace loving citizens”.
