The Senate on Tuesday encouraged the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) to crack down on illicit Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking gas, roadside vendors.

It said such retailers should include those who “operate without a valid license or within residential areas, or licensed plants that lack basic and standard minimum requirements like fire extinguishers and detectors, water sprinklers, temperature gauge, pressure and volume measuring equipment, among others,” as well as those who “operate without a valid license or who operate within residential areas.”

It also encouraged the DPR to establish “systems and procedures for enforcing the Federal Government’s restriction on consumer ownership of LPG cylinders in order to improve safety and deepen cooking gas penetration in the country.”

The Senate also directed its Gas and Industries committees to investigate the reasons of recent gas explosions in Ogun State, 36 states, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and come back to the Senate with remedies that will save lives.

It urged the federal and state fire departments to make fire safety equipment, including as fire extinguishers and other safety equipment, mandatory in homes and workplaces.