Petrol Discharge: FCTA vows to sanction erring stations

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) has vowed to sanction any filling stations that violated the minimum safety standard on petroleum product discharge.

The Director-General of FCT Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Alhaji Abbas Idriss, issued the warning at a news conference on Thursday in Abuja.

He said that the administration would not only sanction erring stations but might also revoke its operation licence.

He said that they might be compelled to pay compensations to any third party whose property got affected as a result of their negligence.

Idriss disclosed that the FCT Minister, Malam Muhammad Bello was worried about the increasing cases of filing station fire incident in the territory.

The D-G said that the minister instructed that such filling stations must be sanctioned for violating the laws regulating their business.

Idriss also disclosed that that the FCTA was liaising with the Upstream and the Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission and other stakeholders to ensure strict adherence to the regulations on product discharge.

According to him, there is going to be proper engagement of all the stakeholders as directed by the minister in order to prevent further incidences of fire.

The FEMA boss emphasised that no filling station should discharge petroleum products when the temperature was high to avoid fire outbreak.

The D-G said FCTA was putting modalities in place to ensure that all filling stations in the territory have public liability insurance.

He said it would also ensure all filling stations maintained minimum standard of fire defence equipment where the staff were adequately trained on safety standards.

“We will investigate and ensure that they have insurance so that they can pay compensation to the third parties.”

Idriss described as unacceptable the recent attack on firemen in the course of fighting the fire at Enyo filling station.

“We use expensive chemicals to fight fire.”

He appealed to residents to always use the 112 emergency toll-free number in the event of an emergency.