Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola (SAN) has regretted the loss of over 15 lives in Tuesday’s tanker explosion in Apapa area of the state.
Fashola spoke to journalists after inspecting ongoing projects in Ikorodu on Thursday.
Describing the incident as devastating, Fashola noted that the era of moving PMS by road has gone.
He noted that Nigeria was one of the few oil producing countries still transporting fuel with trucks through metropolitan cities, berating the Federal Government for not living up to its responsibility of making the rail transportation system work.
“Everyone must take his own share of the responsibility on this issue. First, the federal government. There isn’t a rocket science about restoring the old rail tracks. If the rail is working as they say, then we should begin to use it to transport our petroleum products rather than use the road. It will save the roads and fuel,” the governor said.
He said the incident coming just few months after the revelation of mismanagement of funds in the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation raises serious questions on how the federal government appropriated the funds.
He said, “When one looks at the waste in NNPC. Now we were talking about $45billion that was missing. They seem to be quite satisfied to tell us that it was only $10 billion that was missing. This is a lot of money. One dollar of public money is a lot of money. But later they told us that they spent the money actually.
“Now serious questions must be asked by the National Assembly, chartered accountants and Nigerians about who appropriated the money. Was it spent during the period that the CBN governor said that they didn’t account for the money or was it before? And if there was appropriation for it, then we can now begin to seriously talk that were they the right places to spend the money? Given that if we had spent $10 billion to try and use it to build rails for evacuation of fuel from Apapa and Tin Can Island, maybe those people wouldn’t have died. They are serious questions. First was that the priority? Were those the things to spend them on assuming there was appropriation? They are serious questions that we all must ask at this moment.” Click to signup for FREE news updates, latest information and hottest gists everyday
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I am happy that you are talking about the life that was lost and i commend your effort but please correct your own mistakes. Also you have murdered pple knowingly or unknowingly when you broke their homes for the sake of building roads and most of them die for that reason without compensation and the houses was not built on government land(most) Your vision is grate but without having pples interest in mind it will be bad and selfish. The money does not belong to you so why dont you compensate them. You pple have refused to give out C OF O and still using it for an excuse not to compensate them and rendering them homeless, creating more poverty than curing our present one. The U.S.A is having 26% level of poverty for many year and signed a deal to reduce it which they are achieving now but Nigeria is something else. The only take from the poor and dont know how to give back to them. Your words are right but tidy your part before pushing blames to others. We need to cast out demons out of all the leader of Nigeria and deliver them.
ReplyDeletePlease why r u bringing another matter into this. Even the law maxim "he who must come to equity must come with clean hands" is used on a case by case basis.
DeleteEveryone has the right to say the truth and accuse whoever, including those on death row. So why use a very contentious case to discredit a man.
Even if u don't get C of O, a faulty title can be detected by employing the services of a good lawyer 2 do a search. However, Nigerians who love shortcuts and have no regards for systems and controls will not do such. Land issue in Nigeria is part of the bigger problem... Gross ineptitude in public offices due to the false concept of a national cake
Our dear governor (BRF) you desearve to be d Nigerian next president, to correct the mistakes of d present government and bring them to book.
ReplyDeleteIk Collins Obasi.
Unitrust.
Thnks Mr Govr Fashola for ur advise to dem n God's wisdom upon u. Don't mind d mumu dey giv minister of transport dt is grossly incompetent.Dey'll reap wot dey're sowing!
ReplyDeletePetroleum tanker exploded and many people lost their lives, yet no committee has been set-up to determine the cause and to come up with prevetive measure against future occurence. What is the Minister of Transport doing? He had not even issued a statement of condolence to the sibblings of those who lost their lives. What an uncaring society we are in.
ReplyDelete