Ekiti House Berates The Ongoing Fuel Strike in The State |PoliFocus

The Ekiti State House of Assembly Stand with the People of Ekiti State and support Gov Ayodele Fayose and condemn this Fuel strike bordering on failure to comply with the Rules on Safety of lives and Properties of the People of Ekiti State.

The Story:

Sometimes in January, There was a fire incident at Strive Energy Filling Station, at Mugbagba, ADO Ekiti, Owned by Mr Kayode Jegede.

The fire incident tasked the Executive Governor of Ekiti State, Governor Ayodele Fayose, who ran around to assist the fire fighters to put off the fire.

The Governor later scheduled a meeting in Govt House involving all the dealers of petroleum products in Ado Ekiti.

There and then at the meeting the Governor asked the owner of the petrol station of his plans for those innocent people who got their means of living burnt during the fire incident.

To the surprise of all, the owner of Strive Energy Station Said that he has no plan yet because he is still in Shock. This got the Governor unhappy.

The Governor told him, that the lives of others is different from his own and being in shock is not enough excuse to denied the victims of immediate succour, because the victims are innocent and are entitled to their own lives without violent interferenc from others.

In an attempt to help him out, the Governor asked him of his insurance company so as to assist in putting pressure, to get reprieve for the victims who had their property burnt on time.

To the amazement of all present, the man said he has no comprehensive insurance for others but only have insurance on the products from the depot to the filling station.

The governor was livid and told all present that how would someone protect his own money and products alone but failed to protect the dangerous effect on the innocent others around the vicinity of the station?

The Governor set up a committee same day with the following mandates.

1. Establish the immediate and remote causes of the fire incident.
2. What are the lessons learnt?
3. How do we avoid future occurrence?
4. Look at the following documents and approvals and recertify each filling station as safe to operate business in ADO Ekiti:
A. Insurance
B. Availability of water
C. Fire Safety certificates.
D. Availability of fire Estinguishers, 2 of DCP make Outside for pumps and 2 of Co2 inside the building and 1 fire bucket by the pump.
E. Tax clearance certificatesF. Surveyor General's approval from lands.
5. Retraining of at least 3 station staff on fire safety and use of fire extinguishers.
6. Embargo on new filling stations to ensure orderliness and compliance with laid down safety rules and procedures.

Committee members include representatives from:
1. Lands
2. Police
3. Fire service
4. Public utilities
5. Media
6. Nupeng.
7. EKHA

The Committee sat on the 12th of January and received a letter from the dealers on why they won't come for any investigation.

The committe reassured them that this is not a personal issue with them but about ensuring safety for the populace and that the Governor will do same if anything untoward happens to anyone of them.

They left and promise to bring their papers only to come back on the 16th of January with another letter on why they won't come for any paper check, retraining on fire handling or any investigation.

The committee went into another reassurance that this is not a vindictive mission but a responsibility of the State governor to the citizens to ensure safety of life and property.

Reluctantly they came few days after after dragging the committee of 5 days duration to about 4 weeks.

During the investigations the following were discovered:
1. Only 5 stations out of 50 that came have insurance and complete documents.
2. Some don't have tax clearance certificates.
3. The staff at d station affected is not versed in the use of fire extinguishers.
4. Some of the stations are located on too pitiable small plots of land within residential areas and some at a bend in clear violatiomsand at variance with laid down rules.
5. Some got approvals illegally during the last administration due topolitical affiliations.

The committee recommended as follows that each station must:
1. Obtain a valid insurance within 2 weeks.
2. Make water available on their premises.
3. Retrain 3 staff on fire safety and use of extinguishers at a cost of 10k per station payable to the state govt.
4. Regularise other documents.
5. Await visitations to ensure compliance.They went away happily and promised to comply but later wrote another letter to the Governor giving him conditions to stop the prosecution of the owner of Strive Energy filling station and lift Embargo on construction of new stations.

The State govt replied them that he cannot be blackmailed and that there is nothing personal against Strive Energy other than make him alive to his responsibilities and that the prosecution will continue until he's satisfied that all the poor and voiceless victims of the fire incident have been taken care off.

The Governor also ask the committee to review the Embargo on new stations and ask those in conformity to continue construction.

A notice was sent to the dealers and owners of new stations under construction for site visitations and out of 12 that registered, 8 was visited and cleared same day with few of the eight ask to make some safety adjustments, failure of which may lead to withdrawals of the clearance to continue work.

The 4 that failed to get approvals bordered on:
1. Location very close to primary school.
2. Cutting down a very deep gully with impending disaster during heavy rain for surrounding buildings.
3. Location on and blockage of a massive drainage.
4. Location on less than 1 plot of land.The governor later announced that those 4 who failed the safety and location requirements may have their approvals revoke in overriding public interest if he cannot be convinced that's these stations are sufficiently safe for the people.

It's the inability of these 4 to armtwist the state government that led to these confrontations.Lets Ask The Dealers what injury have suffered before the strike and they won't say any.

Lets Ask majority of them what the strike is all about, they don't know .The issues have nothing to do with:
1. New and old Stations outside ado metropolis.
2. All safe existing and new filling stations in ADO ekiti and with the exemption of the 4 under construction and not selling fuel yet.

These 4 did not and have not met very important safety requirements.This strike is blackmail against all law abiding citizens and we must resist this impunity to force dangers and impending death on innocent children and people if ekiti state by telling them in clear terms that " enough is enough"

"None of these petrol dealers live in and around the petrol stations but live very far away from dangers known to them.

The state has nothing personal against them but Gov Ayo Fayose won't abandon the people to sudden death and oppression from those whose primary target is profit and profit and nothing about safety of lives and properties of ekiti indigenes due to ONLY 4 NEW STATIONS UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

They started the strike on Monday but some stations who love ekiti and love orderliness were selling to the public but presently they have conspired to forcefully deny access of petrol tankers to Ekiti state. These is taken too far.

Such behaviours are not exhibited in other states.The Governor is working round the issue but it must be cleared that this will not be done at the detriment to the safety of the people of Ekiti State.

The momentary inconvenience on our people is regretted and condemned in clear terms but please go about your business lawfully.

This strike is clearly an unforced error on the part of the dealers.
In Unity we stand.

Hon. Dr Samuel Omotoso
Chairman HC on Information, EKHA

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