Rampant cases of gas explosions in parts of Akwa Ibom State, especially Uyo, the state capital have wreaked havoc in most homes, forcing the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the state Fire Service, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Agency (NMDPRA) and other non state actors to wade in through sensitisation and regulatory enforcement regimes.
Several commercial Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) outlets dot the state capital, with most operating in residential areas as, LEADERSHIP checks revealed, unemployment rates remain high in the state, forcing people to eke out a living through dangerous means.
It was gathered, with routine enforcement checks by NMDPRA, some have relocated to hidden places within the capital, while others have moved to the local government areas to avoid crackdown by the regulatory agencies.
Several illegal LPG outlets have been sealed on some popular streets, but the operators have decided to migrate to some hidden areas including residential quarters.
“Some of them are so deceitful that they could post flex on the road directing customers into the hidden locations inside to avoid being apprehended,” a fire service operator, Bassey Effiong, disclosed.
In Eket LGA, several others have been rendered homeless after a gas fire gutted their residence in Atabong, area of the oil city.
Among the affected persons was a TVC News journalist, Miriam Daniels, who was lucky to escape with others, but the inferno, according to her, “destroyed a 15-room bungalow, leaving more than seven families with nothing; not a single item was salvaged.”
A victim, widow and mother of six lamented she had nowhere to go as the fire spread so fast, there was barely time to escape with any belonging.
The state government directed the Humanitarian Affairs department of his office, to re-erect another well furnished structure, while those affected have been temporarily relocated pending the completion of work on the burnt home.
For sanity to hold in the commercial LPG business, the National Orientation Agency (NOA), the state fire service and the regulatory agency -NMDPRA, have been working hands-in-gloves to prevail on operators to imbibe standard safety procedures.
The state director of NOA, Mkpoutom Mkpoutom, urged citizens to be wary of such illegal LPG businesses in residential homes, and stressed the need for prompt report of such unwholesome practices for quick response.
The Akwa Ibom coordinator of the NMDPRA, in charge of Eket LGA, Mr. Ikechukwu Eseka, expressed concern over the unregulated sprouting of illegal commercial cooking gas outlets, especially in residential homes with attendant risk to human lives due to unexpected explosions. Consequently, he disclosed that several of such illegal outlets had been shut down.
