SAFETY: ERRING PETROLEUM MARKETERS TO FACE SANCTIONS-LASG.#PRESS RELEASE.

      The Director-General, Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr. Hakeem Dickson, has read the riot act to petroleum marketers who flout safety regulations, noting that the Lagos State Government has consistently carried out safety sensitisation and advocacy in a bid to ensure the requisite awareness about safety in the downstream sector.

Dickson, who stated this today during a two-day maiden edition of Lagos State Petroleum Marketers Safety Conference 2018 at the Federal Palace Hotel, Balmoral Hall, warned that sanctions will be meted out to erring drivers and operators.

While decrying the recklessness of Petrol Tanker Drivers who flout safety regulations, thus endangering the lives of the people, Dickson explained that the Conference will be beneficial to stakeholders in the sector, especially the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria IPMAN and urged them to further train their drivers about safety because of the sensitivity of the substance they transport.

In his welcome address, the Chief Executive Officer of JBendeb Symlar Associates Limited, joint organisers of the Conference, Mr. James. A. Ashokeji commended the Lagos State Government for being proactive in convening the event which, he noted, had been planned early in the year before the unfortunate Tanker Explosion which occurred on the Otedola Bridge in June.

He said the Conference is a step in the right direction to save Citizens from accidents and deaths due to explosions, adding that it is in line with the State Government's vision to ensure a safe and sustainable quality of life.

Mr. Ashokeji said that his organisation considers the conference a key to alleviating all the inherent bottlenecks associated with the handling of Petroleum Products at the downstream sector.

Also speaking at the event was the Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Petroleum Resources Downstream, Mr. Joseph Iranola Akinlaja who spoke on implementing safety management systems.

He said safety management systems are part of a business operation through which an organisation proactively manages safety that concentrates on controlling business processes starting from the scope, policies, objectives, organisational structure, organisational safety culture, training, communication to hazard investigation.

"It is a management approach through which a safety policy is established to continuously check the outcomes against the plans and most importantly take appropriate corrective actions as a result of lessons learnt from past experience", he said.

At the plenary session, salient issues bordering on tank farm loading terminal operations in Lagos, the implications of HSE training in retail station management among others were discussed.