Senate To DPR: Clamp Down On Illegal Cooking Gas Retailers

The Senate on Tuesday urged the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to clamp down on illegal roadside retailers of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), popularly called cooking gas.

It said such retailers should include those who either “operate without a valid licence or who operate within residential areas, or licensed plants who lack basic and standard minimum requirements like fire extinguishers and detectors, water sprinkler, temperature gauge, pressure and volume measuring equipment, among others”.

It further urged the DPR to put in place “systems and structures for the enforcement of the Federal Government’s ban on consumer ownership of LPG cylinders to enhance safety and deepen cooking gas penetration in the country”.

The Senate also mandated its committees on Gas, and Industries to investigate the causes of the recent cases of gas explosions in Ogun State, 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) to find solutions that would save lives, and report to the Senate.

It called on the Federal and state Fire Services to enforce the mandatory use of fire safety equipment, such as fire extinguishers and other safety equipment, in homes and places of work.

The upper chamber urged the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), DPR, the National Orientation Agency (NOA) and gas marketers and highly inflammable products to embark on aggressive, consistent sensitisation and awareness campaigns on safe ways of using gas cylinders and other inflammable materials to save lives.