(Intersociety, Onitsha Nigeria: 19th
February 2017)-The recent Onitsha fuel station fire disaster that gutted a
Mobil Petrol Filling Station and about 13 other residential buildings
containing flat apartments, law firms, commercial shops and an electronics
sales office and its warehouse, etc; is a divine warning and wakeup call to the
present Government of Anambra State over its poor urban and environmental
planning, development and management. That is to say that the human tragedies
so averted are divine and miraculous as well as teachable lessons and warning to
the present Government of Anambra State.
In the referenced fire disaster
that took place at the Denis Memorial Grammar School (DGMS) Roundabout in
Onitsha on Wednesday Night, 15th February 2017 and spread to parts
of Upper New Market Road and of Oguta Road; properties above mentioned
including over six private vehicles, valued at over N1Billion were lost to the
inferno with about four persons critically injured. For instance, a major
electronics company with a sales plaza along DMGS by Upper New Market Road had
on Monday, 13th February 2017 taken delivery of a container load of
electronics; only for the whole products to get burnt beyond recognition by the
inferno.
The inferno was caused by a faulty
trailer lorry that lost its brake and hit the said Mobil Filling Station,
leading to bursting of the petrol tanks with fire sparks. The flowing waste
fuel caught fire, spread and found its way into gutters nearby; hitting and
sparking vehicles and other inflammables in contact; leading to the affected
buildings and other properties going up in flames.
The zero human casualties so
recorded were due to the timing of the inferno (early hours of the night) and
prompt escapes made and precautions taken by nearby residents 30 minutes before
the inferno burst and escalated. All the early signals and calls made to nearby
formations of the Anambra State Fire Service were abortive, which was why the
inferno went viral causing catastrophic damages before the late arrival of the
Delta State Fire Service. Intersociety team went to the incident arena on
Saturday, 18th February 2017. We also understand that four other
infernos took place simultaneously in other parts of the State and on the same
date.
The DMGS Roundabout fuel station
disaster is a wakeup call to the present Government of Anambra State and its
Ministries of Environment and Urban Planning and Development. The urban and
environmental planning, development and management of the William Madubuchi
Obiano’s Government is nothing to write home about. The referenced ministries
and their enforcement bodies are more of licit and illicit revenue hunting
outfits than planning and management. That is to say that the State’s Urban and
Environmental Planning and Management policies and enforcements are grossly
ineffective, inefficient and in a sorry state.
The leadership of Intersociety has
severally in recent times and even before then, drawn our advocacy attention to
the present Administration of Governor Willie Obiano as well as that of its
predecessor (Obi Administration) concerning poor urban and environmental
planning and management run by the State’s Ministries of Environment, Regional
and Urban Planning. In all these, Onitsha and Nnewi and their environs are the
worst hit particularly in the areas of citing, locating and building of filling
stations, industries (i.e. medium and large scales), market stalls and
residential or commercial buildings in environmentally unfriendly, degradable
and hazardous locations or areas.
For instance, there is a spate of
planlessness in citing, locating and building of the above mentioned facilities
particularly in the commercial centres or cities of the State. Till date, there
are no befitting public cemeteries in Onitsha and environs. The old Awada and
Onitsha cemeteries were crookedly sold by criminal officials of successive
Governments of Anambra State to churches and individuals over twenty years ago;
leaving the commercial city and its environs without any befitting public
cemetery till date.
There are also reckless approvals
by the present Government of Anambra State to individuals including criminal
government appointees for building or erection of fuel filling stations in
areas densely populated by residents and residential buildings. That is to say
that over 80% of fuel filling stations built in the past two years in the urban
cities of the State particularly in Onitsha and its environs is found to be
located in areas or street roads located in the areas of densely populated
residents and residential buildings.
It is our further observation that
all the unathorized fuel filling stations under construction as at over two
years ago and stopped by Governor Obiano’s predecessor, former Governor Peter
Obi, had been allowed and completed as functional filling stations by the
present Government of Anambra State. Cases in point are those located along
Zik’s Avenue and Silas Work in Onitsha. Such environmentally unfriendly and
hazardous fuel filling stations can be found in densely populated parts
of Obodoukwu and Atani Roads in Ogbaru LGA, Port Harcourt Road in
Onitsha, Oraifite Street in Awada as well as other densely populated areas of
Fegge, Awada, Nkpor, Okpoko, Woliwo, Omagba, Nnewi, to mention but a few. Such
environmentally unfriendly and hazardous fuel filling stations cannot be erected
without the criminal approval or authorization for a price by the Anambra State
Urban Development Board (ASUDEB).
Other gross misconducts of the
present Government of Anambra State are criminal approvals for location of
medium and large scale industries in residential areas and approval for
erection of “boys’ quarters” before building of “main buildings” in areas
approved for conventional residential houses. This is rampant in the State’s
commercial centres of Onitsha, Nnewi, Awada, Iyiowa Odekpe, Nsugbe, etc.
Such criminal approvals and
erections are substantially responsible for urban street congestion and
environmental degradation including littering the streets with functional and
mal-functional private and commercial vehicular owing to lack of conventional
residential parking spaces. In Asaba, Delta State, for instance, erection of
residential buildings is strictly done according to the Delta State urban and
environmental planning and management policies and enforcement rules; but in
Anambra State, the reverse is grossly the case.
We call on the present Government
of Anambra State to re-jig and reverse the present sorry state of its urban and
environmental planning and management. All the fuel filling stations located in
densely populated streets and areas of the State should be directed to relocate
or convert them to other environmentally friendly uses such as fast food and
shopping plazas or residential buildings. Location of industries in residential
areas of the State must be outlawed; likewise the policy of building “boys’
quarters” before main buildings, and indiscriminate erection of market stores
on drainages, waterways and other environmentally degradable places which must
also be totally prohibited. There should be new befitting public cemeteries for
Onitsha and environs to be located in Oba and Ogbaru, to be backed by enacted
Law of the State to grant them immunity from encroachments.
Signed:
Emeka Umeagbalasi, Board Chairman
International Society for Civil
Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety)
Mobile Line: +2348174090052
Email: info@intersociety-ng.org
Website: www.intersociety-ng.org
Barr Obianuju Joy Igboeli
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of
Law Program
Mobile Line: +2348180771506
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