The Nigerian Senate on Wednesday, June 24, 2015 summoned the management of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation over questions pertaining to the state of refineries in the country.
In a motion moved Gbenga Ashafa representing Lagos East senatorial district, the senate decried the incessant occurrence of fuel tanker accidents in the country.
“Within the space of one week, four fuel tankers accidents that occurred in two major cities in Nigeria that claimed lives and destroying properties.”
“The first incident which claimed over 70 lives at Upper Iweka Onitsha and Iyana-Ipaja, Lagos,” he said.
Mr. Ashafa said the tragedies caused by fuel tanker could have been avoided had the refineries been working.
“If our refineries were functional, all the tankers in Nigeria would not have businesses coming to Lagos to lift fuel as refineries in port-Harcourt, Warri and Kaduna would have taken care of that.”
Meanwhile, the NNPC had said that the four refineries in the country would be working by July.It is expected that if the four refineries in the country work at full capacity fuel tankers coming to Lagos to lift petroleum products would be reduced
