The Chairman of the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission, Professor Simon Mallam and his son were among the six persons killed last Saturday when a gas exploded in Kaduna State. The explosion, according to the Department of Petroleum Resources , was caused by illegal decanting of Liquefied Petroleum Gas into another cylinder by operators of the facility.
It should worry the authorities that in the past five years, hundreds of lives have been lost to gas explosions. Ironically, this is coming amid intense campaigns on the need for Nigerians to drop kerosene for gas as a cheaper and cleaner means of cooking. In a recent incident, some gas escaped into the air and got to a fire point where a lady was operating a restaurant, killing and injuring many people.
Concerned by the influx of sub-standard Liquefied Petroleum Gas cylinders into the country, a former National Coordinator of Women in LPG, Mrs Nkechi Obi, last year warned that Nigerian homes may be risking deadly explosions. While canvassing for the use of LPG for cooking rather than firewood which destroys the fragile eco-system, Obi said using “fake cylinders also poses severe danger to our womenfolk, who face daily risk of death or injury in the event of explosion.