Lagos gridlock: NUPENG backs plans to expand tanker parking lot

National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) has described as a welcome development the planned expansion of the holding capacity of the existing petroleum tanker parking lot at Orile-Iganmu, saying the union will be ready to partner Lagos State in the actualisation of the project.

Isaac Aberare, the general secretary of NUPENG who spoke in an interview with BusinessDay, Wednesday, said the project would impact positively on traffic situation in Lagos adding that it has always been the desire of the union for the government to assist stakeholders in the petroleum distribution chain secure a space for tankers that throng the state from different parts of the country only to end up on the roads due to want of parking space.

 Aberare recalled that it was the effort put up by the union during the administration of former governor of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu that led to the construction of the first phase of the Orile-Iganmu parking lot, part of which had been taken by the light rail project being constructed on the Lagos-Badagry corridor.

“It was our initiative in NUPENG that resulted in to the building of the tanker parking lot at Orile under Governor Bola Tinubu who helped in securing the land for us. The project was later completed in the first tenure of Governor Babatunde Fashola.   Today if the Lagos State government says it wants to partner with stakeholders, it is a welcome development. I am aware that they have set up a committee for this and we have our representatives in the committee.  We would be waiting for them to brief the national secretariat on what the resolutions of the committee in this regard will be.  NUPENG is a willing partner of developmental issues,” said Aberare.

It would be recalled that petroleum tank farm owners during a meeting with Governor Akinwunmi Ambode on July 8, agreed to an enlarged committee that would have other stakeholders in the downstream petroleum sector as members, to look into the possibility of expanding the tanker parking lot at Orile to accommodate more trucks in what aims at freeing the roads being taken over by tankers in Lagos.

The parking lot currently takes about 350 trucks and the thinking of the Lagos State government is to increase its capacity to 1,000 trucks by undertaking the construction of the second phase of the project.

The stakeholders also agreed to restrengthen the call-up system that allows only tankers with valid papers showing authority to lift fuel, to enter Apapa at a given time, and to strictly enforce this using Lagos State task force and other security personnel.

Some of the stakeholders include NUPENG, National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO); Association of Maritime Trucks Owners (AMATO); Petroleum Tanker Drivers (PTD); Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria (MO- MAN); Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) among others.

Apapa being the host community of Nigeria’s two most patronised seaports where over 57 tank farms are also located is particularly hit by the unruly activities of tanker drivers who park on the roads and bridges in their scramble to lift petroleum products from the tank farms.

JOSHUA BASSEY