The Nigeria Liquefied Gas Association (NLPG) has urged relevant government agencies to check the upsurge in illegal gas refilling stations in different parts of the country.

Alhaji Auwalu Ilu, President of the association, said in Lagos that the move was necessary to safeguard lives and properties. Ilu said that many gas refilling stations did not have the safety measures to conduct such business.

“These illegal refilling stations only exist because of lack of adequate gas refilling plants in the country,” he said. Ilu said that investors were not willing to go into the business because of the absence of good regulatory framework.

For instance, there are the problems of inadequate and mismanagement of cylinders as well as lack of laws to check cross-filling of cylinders by consumers, among others,” he said.

Ilu urged the Federal Government to encourage more Nigerians to use gas to reduce the country”s dependence on imported kerosene. He said that the government could do this by introducing a policy that would force down price of cylinders.

According to him, Nigeria cannot be talking of green house emissions when there is a lot of carbon monoxide from stoves and the firewood.

The LPG Chief said that the call was important against the backdrop of current scarcity and high price of kerosene. He said that Nigeria spent billions of naira on importation of Kerosene in spite of abundance of petroleum resources in the country.

“Why must we continue to import what we can produce? The subsidy and importation of kerosene and its associated hazards should be dumped if the country must save enough foreign exchange.

More usage of gas will drastically reduce importation of kerosene. Gas is more environmental friendly and cheaper. For instance, a12.5 cubic metre of gas for now cost about N2, 500 and can last for about five weeks for an average family of six. But four litres of kerosene now sells for N800 and it can barely last for two weeks for a family of six,” Ilu said