The Department of Petroleum Resources on Sunday, vowed to clampdown on any illegal gas retailers across the 23 Local Government Areas of Kaduna State, adding that operators of gas not licensed by the agency risk prosecution, The Punch report.
The DPR’s Northwest Operations Controller, Alhaji Isa Tafida, made this known in Kaduna on Sunday, following Saturday’s gas explosion which occurred in a business premises along Kachia Road, Sabon Tasha, in Chikun local Government Area.
Tafida said the agency would no longer tolerate the illegal activities of gas retailers in the State and other States under the northwest zone comprising Kaduna, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto and Zamfara.
He described as unfortunate the incident which led to the death of no fewer than five persons, including the Chairman, Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, Prof. Simon Mallam.
Mallam was said to have taken his grandson to a barber’s shop close to where the retail gas outlet was located when the incident happened.
The fate of the Professor’s grandson was yet unknown as of the time of filing this report.
Alhough the cause of the explosion has not been ascertained, the State government, according to the Commissioner for Internal Security and Home Affairs, Mr. Samuel Aruwan, the state would investigate the matter.
Tafida, while addressing reporters shortly after on the spot assessment of the damage at the scene of the incident, expressed concern over the unwholesome activities of illegal retail gas vendors in the State.
He lamented that the unfortunate incident happened few days after the agency went to sensitize the citizens of the state on the danger of patronizing illegal retail gas outlets in the state, warning the public against such activities.
According to him, the agency in collaboration with security agencies will go all out to dislodge illegal retail gas outlet operators and prosecute them.
He noted that preliminary investigation indicated that the facility in question where the explosion took place, was an illegal retailing gas vendor that “engages in illegal storage of LPG (cooking) and acetylene (industrial gas).
Tafida said, “That the operators of the illegal facility is not known to the DPR, and that the facility is not licensed by the DPR.”
The DPR boss also appealed to residents to report any illegal gas vendor to avert further recurrence of the unfortunate incident with the view to protecting lives and properties.
Meanwhile, the agency has condoled with the families of “those that lost their lives and sympathizes with those that sustained injuries” during the incident.
