Index to Nigerian Newspapers

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority announced that it may ban sixty-thousand-liter capacity trucks from federal highways to reduce petroleum tanker accidents, which have caused nearly five hundred deaths over the past three years, proposing a maximum limit of forty-five thousand liters instead. During a stakeholders' engagement in Abuja, the chief executive officer of the regulatory authority, Farouk Ahmed, described the rising carnage—which surged dramatically from single digits to hundreds of fatalities annually—as completely unacceptable, while outlining other safety mandates including mandatory anti-spill valves, driver training, and safe-to-load initiatives. However, the president of the National Association of Road Transport Owners, Yusuf Othman, strongly opposed the truck capacity ban, warning that it would jeopardize investments worth over three hundred billion naira tied to two thousand heavy-duty vehicles, and instead urged the government to prioritize the rehabilitation of bad roads and address infrastructure challenges.