Two week after the Federal government gave a directive to the Nigeria Ports Authority to relocate all tank farms at Apapa to the hinterland, not much has been heard about the relocation.
Concerned stakeholders, who praised the decision, urged the government to compel the NPA to carry out the directive.
Endless gridlocks mainly as a result of the location of the tank farms along the busy road and the bad state of the road have made Apapa no go area for many people.
It has almost become a permanent feature of the area to see oil tankers queuing up along the Apapa/Oshodi Expressway waiting to get products from the tank farms.
These tankers have been blamed for the chaotic traffic situation at Apapa and its environs.
At Berger Yard, motorists returning to Apapa from Mile 2 instead of using their lane are forced to use the same lane with those going to Mile 2. It is either that or they remain stuck in the traffic for hours while the tankers queue up to receive products from the tank farms.
This situation has caused the commercial motorcycle business to flourish as the operators charge exorbitant fares for people that do not want their schedule disrupted by the traffic.
More worrisome than the gridlocks is the fear that an explosion on any of the tank farms can spell disaster for the residential estates that have over the years sprung up within the vicinity.
It was for this reason that the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Maritime, Mr. Leke Oyewole, was reported to have said the Federal Government had directed that all tank farms be relocated by the NPA.
Only last week, the Chairman of the National Information Centre on War Against Terrorism, Mr. Mike Omeri, said at a press briefing in Abuja that insurgents planned to hijack fuel tankers, plant bombs inside them and drive them to crowded places in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja.
With the current security situation in the country, some have said the location of the tank farms at Apapa alongside the ubiquitous petrol tankers could well be a keg of gun powder.
Early in January, an oil barge reportedly offloading products at the MRS Jetty, Tin-Can Island Port Complex, Apapa exploded into flames, shattering glass doors and windows of buildings as far as 500 metres from the scene.
The explosion said to have been caused by the improper handling of the barge bringing in fuel from the mother-ship and offloading into the MRS tank farm, reportedly affected the NPA Administrative Building.
Recently, the Atlas Cove Jetty, a major fuel loading and discharge facility being managed by the NPA, also experienced an explosion which left an unconfirmed number of persons dead.
While tank farms located along the Coconut /Berger axis are said to have been leased to oil marketers by Ibru, those along the PTML/Apapa axis are reportedly under the control of the NPA.
A clearing agent, Mr. David Pius, described the directive as timely.
He said, “The agitation for the relocation of the tank farms has been that of the maritime workers and other stakeholders. It will be great if the government has finally acceded to our request.
“I believe when the tank farms were constructed, Apapa was not as densely populated as it is now. Now the entire area is built up and filled with residential buildings; it has become necessary to move the tank farms to less populated areas like Badagry, for instance.
“The activities of the oil tankers have affected our businesses and the economy negatively. Motorists are stuck in traffic for hours because the tankers have taken over the road. Any truck driver carrying your consignment from the port will first consider the diesel they would waste in traffic. This will be included in the cost of transportation. In the end, the owner of the goods will transfer the added cost to the end users. This is another kind of inflation.”
“We witnessed explosions before at one of the tank farms and houses were destroyed. If there should be a major explosion, the container terminals and Apapa residents all around the Coconut and Beach Estate axis would not escape the destruction,” Pius added.
Another clearing agent, Mike Okorie, also lamented the adverse effects of the presence of the tank farms and the tanker drivers.
He said, “It takes a whole day to get to Apapa through the Apapa/Oshodi Expressway because the road has been entirely blocked by the tanker drivers. They have made the road impassable from Berger to Apapa. It was not always like this; the situation actually escalated when our refineries stopped working and the private sector became involved in importing petroleum products. As more oil marketers brought in vessels of petroleum products, the demand for tank farms increased.
“Because of the traffic situation, haulage business has become more expensive. Previously, to get a one by 20 feet container out of the port used to cost between N25,000 and N30,000. Now, it costs between N70,000 and N80,000 to transport the same container to its destination.
“The tanker drivers cannot be controlled; they will line up and block all the access roads to the ports. Each time a taskforce is constituted to regulate their activities; there will be sanity on the roads. This can only last for a few months and then everything goes back to the former situation. As a result, motorists now congest the Surulere axis of the ports.
A maritime consultant, Captain Benjamin Bekes, lauded the relocation directive.
He said, “In developed countries, you don’t find people living within the vicinity of tank farms. Unfortunately, that is the situation in Nigeria and we are sitting on a keg of gun powder. Relocating the tank farms is a big project but it is achievable if the government will be honest about it. There are places where these tank farms can be relocated to and the drivers would not need to come to Apapa to get products.
“Building a house is difficult but taking it down is easy. The same situation applies to the tank farms. Major components of these tank farms are coupled. All that needs to be done is for them to be uncoupled and then moved. Leaving things as they are is dangerous. In Kirikiri alone, there are over three tank farms located within residential buildings. If there is an explosion, it will be terrible because there is only one access road to this area.
“Yet, within this area and others like it, you find people smoking and cooking on open fire. As for the tanker drivers, petroleum products need not be transported by road. They are best moved by rail; this is what is done in other countries. In fact, you hardly find petroleum tankers on the road in other countries. When you do see them on the road, it is usually at night.”
The President, National Council of Licensed Customs Agents, Mr. Lucky Amiwero, also advised the Federal Government to take a cue from what was being done in other parts of the world.
He said, “Ports are a gateway to the economy, yet one spends valuable hours trying to access the ports because of the tank farms and the tanker drivers. We have to look at other countries and see what they are doing. Tank farms ideally should not be sited on access roads. Last year, we had up to three cases of explosion at the tank farms. For that alone, tank farms should not be found in built up areas. When you also look at it, we really don’t need tank farms because we have refineries, we have got oil.”
A spokesperson for the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria, Mr. Bolaji Akinola, said, “We support the relocation of the tank farms from Apapa. It will reduce the traffic problem around the seaports and make the port environment safer for operations.”
Despite repeated phone calls and a text message to the spokesperson for the oil marketers, Mr. Femi Olawore, there was no response from him.
The Assistant General Public Affairs Manager for the NPA, Mr. Musa Iliya, said the agency had yet to receive an official directive concerning the relocation of tank farms.
He said, “We did hear the pronouncement by Oyewole but we have not received an official directive to that effect. What we have presently is the earlier directive that no new tank farms should be built anymore within the port vicinity.
“That aside, we have a health and safety department that ensures safety standards through routine checks are adhered to on the tank farms.”
Also there was no response from the spokesperson for the Department of Petroleum Resources, Mr. Paul Osu, when calls and text messages were sent to his phone.
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