The fear of possible loss of lives of over a million of residents and properties worth several Billions of Naira in Tanke Community area of Ilorin as a result of constant usage of tiny roads by fully loaded petrol tankers that could skid off and cause disaster has been raised by a Chieftain of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) in Kwara state Alhaji Abdulkareem Adekunle Sanni.
Alhaji Sanni,the Managing Director of SANRAB petrol station at Tanke,speaking at a press conference in Ilorin on Thursday attributed the looming danger to the lockup of Tunde)Idiagbon flyover bridge by the state government because it’s still under construction,a development that forced the petrol tanker drivers to be going through the community to get to their various destinations being the only option.
He said there are fourteen petrol stations between the fly over area in Tanke and the main gate of the university of Ilorin which prompted regular usage of the linkroads in Tanke Community by the tanker drivers.
The IPMAN elder recalled with nostalgia on November 21,2022 when one of his Tankers returning from Lagos entered the ditch in Tanke Community in the course of negotiating one of the corners.
He said,”When alerted,I had to quickly called the officials of State Fire Service, men of NSCDC and police officers to be on standby while my staff carefully evacuate the product from the fully loaded tank.It actually cost me a lot of extra money for the security backup..
“And we are talking about 45,000,50,000 and 60,000 fully loaded Tanks with petrol Tanker drivers navigating through Tanke Community everytime including the evening time when most people are already asleep.
“We don’t need to wait for the disaster to happen before we start regretting,one of the residents whose house is close to the main road said they used be very scared and run out of their house whenever they hear of the sound of Trailer loaded with petrol tank in their area.”
He therefore called on the state government to urgently find a means to open up one lane of the fly over bridge still under construction for tankers and other vehicles to use like the government did during the just concluded convocation ceremonies of university of Ilorin to avoid the possible carnage.
