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 wake up 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, February 15, 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 N1 billion 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, February 13, 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, February 18,
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
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
Head, Civil Liberties & Rule of Law Program
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