Ogun State Government has read a Riot-act to Operators of illegal gas skids, gas plants and gas retail outlets, to adhere strictly to all stafety regulations of the business or face the risk of being Shutdown.
The State Government had late last year shutdown 13 gas skids in Ijebu-Ode for operating illegally, violating the safety provisions of the state's physical planning regulations and that of the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) as a regulatory agency .
The State Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, TPL Olatunji Odunlami who issued the Riot-act in an exclusive chat with Edu-Biznews recently in Abeokuta, vowed to shutdown more of such illegal gas skids, gas plant and gas retail outlets still operating in other major towns and Abeokuta, the state capital.
Odunlami expressed concern over the increasing number of Operators who failed to comply with the safety regulations and obtain license from DPR, inspite of several meetings with the leadership of association of gas business.
"We discovered from our monitoring activities that many of them(Gas Business Operators), particularly the gas skids are just existing with out necessary Permit and suggest there is need for control, before you set up the business, you must follow all the safety regulations, we can not just allow gas explosion that will lead to loss of lives and property of our people, this is a responsible and responsive government, we take lives of our people seriously",he said
The Commissioner insisted that the State Government would fishout all illegal Operators and dealth with them decisively .
His words,"We started by dividing the state into different areas, to make it easier for us to carry out the excercise, we started with Ijebuode and its environ, we just want people to know that we are ready to confront any of the Operators who are operating illegally in the state."
"What we have done in Ijebu-Ode is just the beginning, we are going to other parts of the state, we are not saying you can't do your business but it must be within the armbit of the laws of the state, not even gas that has this potential by any error to be destructive"Odunlami stressed.
The Commissioner was particularly disturbed with the unwholesome practice of gas retailers who are fond of refilling cylinders instead of exchanging them.
"Gas retailers who sell in small quantity of gas, the law only allow them to operate by exchanging cylinders, that is what they are empowed to do but you find out that some of them in small container shops, refilling the cylinders, that is the most dangerous thing to do, any slightest error may lead to explosion."he warned.
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