NMDPRA Moves To Reduce Petrol Tanker Accidents, Explosions
The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has said that no truck carrying more than 60,000 litres capacity of petrol will be allowed to load in any depot across the country from March 1, 2025.
It also added that no truck with over 45,000 litres in capacity will be allowed to load products by the fourth quarter of 2025.
The Authority made this known following a meeting with critical stakeholders on Wednesday.
According to the regulatory agency, this is the first measure to mitigate the continued petroleum tanker accidents and explosions which has led to the loss of lives in the country.
In January 2025 alone, over 100 lives have been lost and property worth millions destroyed in petrol tanker explosions.
No fewer than 98 people died in a petrol tanker explosion at Dikko junction around the Abuja-Kaduna expressway in Niger State on January 18, 2025.
The petrol-laden tanker was said to have exploded when some residents of the area went to scoop its content after an accident.
Scores were burnt to death, while several others sustained various degrees of burnt.
Just one week after the Niger incident, another petrol-laden tanker exploded along the Enugu-Onitsha Expressway, killing not less than 11.
The tanker was said to have suffered brake failure, tumbled, and had its content spilt, erupting in an explosion.
During his condolence visit to the Emir of Suleja after the Niger explosion, the Minister of Information, Mohammed Idris, disclosed that President Bola Tinubu will set up a high-powered committee to investigate the recurrence of tanker explosions and implement safety measures to forestall the tragedy.
He said members of the committee would be drawn from the Ministry of Information and National Orientation, the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN), tanker drivers’ associations and other stakeholders.
The minister also said enlightenment campaigns on the safe movement of fuel tankers, road safety habits and the dangers of scooping leaked fuel would be carried out by his ministry.
