Imo assembly moves to prevent gas explosion in Owerri

The devasting effect of last weekend’s Lagos gas explosion has put Imo people, especially the lawmakers of the Imo House of Assembly on red alert.

During plenary Tuesday, the lawmakers condemned the construction of residential buildings close to gas or petrol stations and invited the Owerri Capital Development Authority (OCDA) and the Directorate of Petroleum Resouces(DPR) in the state to explain.

This followed a motion presented under Point of Order by Hon Obinna Okwara of Nkwere state constituency who observed that there were no functional firefighting equipment in most of the stations and that anytime an explosion occurred; lots of lives and property were lost.

Okwara noted that there were many petrol stations around Orji area of Owerri, built near residential buildings and that these stations also had their gas cooking stations built around them and that anytime an explosion occurred, it would have a devastating effect on the people.

He urged fellow lawmakers to lend their voices to support his motion and urged the government to ensure that the OCDA and the DPR maintain the original master plan of Owerri capital territory to avoid the Lagos experience in future.

A nine  man adhoc committee, led by Hon Obinna Okwara  was eventually constituted  by  Speaker Chiji Collins to conduct an investigation on the matter and report back to the House in two weeks’ time.

Leave a Reply