The Nationwide Orientation Company (NOA) has referred to as on the Nationwide Meeting to criminalise the act of scooping gasoline from fallen tankers.
The announcement was made in a press release posted on the NOA’s official X account attributed to the Director Normal of NOA, Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu.
The decision comes amid rising considerations over repeated gasoline tanker accidents following a current incident at Apapa.
Issa-Onilu condemned the observe within the strongest phrases, describing it as harmful, irresponsible, and wholly unacceptable in a contemporary society. He highlighted that the dangers lengthen past these instantly concerned, threatening motorists, close by communities, emergency responders, and nationwide infrastructure.
“This isn’t poverty. Poverty doesn’t take away the sense in folks’s heads, nor does it get rid of judgement or the intuition for self-preservation. What we’re witnessing is a aware, reckless, and legal disregard for human life and public security,” he stated.
In line with the DG, NOA has lengthy performed nationwide sensitisation campaigns to coach Nigerians on the risks of gasoline scooping, but some people proceed to have interaction within the act regardless of repeated warnings.
Issa-Onilu urged the Nationwide Meeting to enact laws explicitly criminalising gasoline scooping and prescribing clear, deterrent penalties for offenders. He stated that public enlightenment should now be complemented with enforcement measures to finish this lethal behaviour.
Gasoline tanker accidents attributable to scooping pose a extreme threat to public security and nationwide infrastructure. Nigeria has repeatedly skilled mass casualties from such incidents.
In probably the most tragic current incidents, a petroleum tanker overturned close to Suleja in Niger State in January 2025, and greater than 100 individuals who had gathered to gather spilled gasoline had been killed when the car exploded, injuring dozens of others.
In line with reviews, the Federal Street Security Corps (FRSC), Benue Sector Command disclosed that in 2024 alone, at the very least 411 Nigerians misplaced their lives whereas scooping gasoline from fallen tankers.
By criminalising the act, the federal government goals to scale back preventable deaths, enhance emergency response security, and promote a tradition of lawfulness and self-preservation.
The decision by the Nationwide Orientation Company for the criminalization of gasoline tanker scooping comes as a response to harmful observe of Nigerians when a diesel-laden tanker overturned on the Tincan Liverpool Bridge within the Apapa space of Lagos State.
The tanker’s cargo spilled onto the street, prompting residents and passersby to hurry to gather the extremely flammable gasoline in jerrycans and containers.
Emergency responders rapidly arrived on the scene to include the scenario, stopping what may have been a catastrophic explosion.