29 October 2013, AKURE — NO fewer than 81 petrol filling stations may be demolished across Ondo State if government approves the findings of a panel of enquiry set up to determine the appropriateness of their locations.
The panel which submitted its findings to the governor, Dr. Olusegun Mimiko in Akure, also discovered that another 311 were illegally established across the state.
It also recommended that 34 other filling stations be converted for other uses.
Governor Mimiko inaugurated the panel in April this year with the mandate to determine the appropriateness of location of filling stations, interface with owners on approval and make recommendations to the government.
Its chairman, Mr. Dare Aragbaye, a permanent secretary in the state transport ministry while submitting the report, said his panel discovered that a total of 311 filling stations illegally established out which 81 are to be sealed.
Receiving the report Governor Mimiko frowned at indiscriminate siting of filling stations in every nook and cranny of major cities across the state.
Mimiko noted that it is the responsibility of any responsible government to guarantee safety of lives and property of its citizenry.
He vowed to bring to book any officer found culpable in the illegal approval of petrol outlets.
*Dayo Johnson, Vanguard