*Lanre Mojola, Director-General of the Lagos State Safety Commission, emphasises the State Government has a responsibility to ensure the safety and protection of residents, threatening to shut violators of safety measures on cooking gas in the cosmopolitan state in Nigeria

Isola Moses | ConsumerConnect

Determined to safeguard the lives and property of Lagosians, the Lagos State Government (LASG) has cautioned retail gas operators and/or marketers operating within the cosmopolitan state to adhere to proper safety measures or get shut down.

ConsumerConnect reports the latest warning to stakeholders is sequel to several reports of recent gas explosions in the state with the attendant loss of precious lives and destruction of property.

Mr. Lanre Mojola, Director-General of Lagos State Safety Commission (LSSC), who issued the warning  while speaking at the opening ceremony of the Oil and Gas Stakeholders’ Safety, said the government’s caution is meant to guard against avoidable gas explosions the Centre of Excellence.

The Oil and Gas Stakeholders’ Safety Summit has the theme; “Safe Retail Gas Operation in Lagos State”.

Mojola, represented at the event by Mr. Seun Awojobi, Technical Adviser of the Safety Commission, also explained the objective of the summit is to train practitioners in the sector on how to handle Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), otherwise known as Cooking Gas, in better and safer ways.

According to the Director-General of LSSC, the Lagos State Government has a responsibility to ensure the safety and protection of residents in the state.

“We know of past incidents that had happened, some ranging from industrial to residential accidents where several lives were lost and the Safety Commission’s mandate is to ensure that the lives and property of all residents in the state are safe and protected.

“Event like this is designed to bring the practitioners in the liquefied gas sector together and train them on best practices around the usage of gas and see how we can guide against gas explosions and loss of more lives.’’

The Lagos State Government, he disclosed, had identified about 2,500 gas retail shops across the state, and it is working with the Association to weed out marketers that are selling without proper safety measures in place.

“The government has done the enumeration on retail gas outlets in Lagos with the intent of scaling up their safety measures for the ones that are open to scaling.

“For others that we believe will pose harm or danger to the environment, we are shutting them down,’’ stated Mojola.

The Director-General told the gathering that several incidents had occurred in the past and the summit was designed to further prevent avoidable incidents with more training and enlightenment for operators and stakeholders.

Most participants at the Summit were of the view that gas explosions usually occur when the operators failed to imbibe the culture of safety and follow the laid down guidelines and regulations on the handling of hydrocarbon.

The participants urged gas retail shops and consumers to understand the proper safety handling measures and follow the guidelines to ensure that their operations are done within the confines of the law so that lives and properties are not endangered.