Bello warns against locating gas stations close to residential areas
By Abba – Eku Onyeka, FCT
Honourable Minister, Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mallam Muhammad Musa Bello has warned against locating gas dispensing stations close to residential areas in FCT.
For that, he called for strict control and regulation of gas dispensing stations in the nation’s capital.
In a press release from the Chief Press Secretary (CPS) to the Minister, Anthony Ogunleye, the Minister sounded the warning at a courtesy call on the Ministry by National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency (NOSDRA) recently in Abuja.
He therefore promised that the FCT Administration (FCTA) would work very closely with the NOSDRA to mitigate the dangers of oil and gas related disasters and to better manage emergency situations in the FCT.
Saying that collaborations between agencies is very essential for the effective prevention and management of disasters in the FCT, Malam Bello commended NOSDRA in its role in protecting the FCT environment and other parts of the country from oil spillage arising from activities in the upstream and downstream petroleum sector.
He also hailed the agency for making available the maps detailing the locations of petrol filling stations in the FCT for effective management and response to emergencies.
Earlier in his remarks, the Director General (DG) of NOSDRA, Mr Idris Musa explained that the Agency is a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Environment with responsibility to carry out environmental management in the petroleum sector, covering the upstream, midstream and the downstream.
Commending the Development Control Department of the FCTA, as well as the Abuja Environmental Protection Board for ensuring that petrol filling stations are established in line with the Abuja masterplan and in tandem with environmental regulation, he said NOSDRA has captured all the petrol and gas stations in the FCT and the Area Councils through its ICT and GIS programmes, and has documented them in a map in its database for effective response during emergencies.
The DG also disclosed that the agency has successfully introduced world class methods of installing underground petrol storage tanks at filling stations in such a manner that would prevent the seeping of petrol into the water table, saying it is now serving as a guide for existing and future projects.
