Recommends him for National honours
The Senate has resolved to honour Ejiro Otarigho, the brave tanker driver who drove a burning tanker from danger zone to avert a tragic fire incident in Agbarho, Delta State.
The Senate also recommended Otarigho to President Muhammadu Buhari for national honours.
The resolution followed a motion moved by the Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ovie Omo-Agege, who represents Delta Central Senatorial district in the upper legislative chamber under the banner of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
It received a bi-partisan and unanimous support from his colleagues in Delta State, who both co-sponsored the motion. They are Senator James Manager of the Peoples Democratic Party, representing Delta South district; and Senator Peter Nwaoboshi (APC, Delta North).
With his tanker in flame last weekend as he approached a densely populated section of Agbarho, Otarigho put up a heroic act by diverting the truck into where there would be no human causality. The tanker was completely razed by the inferno.
Appreciative onlookers captured the moment and the scene immediately went viral.
At Tuesday’s plenary, Senator Omo-Agege cited Order 45 and 52 of the Senate Standing Order 2021 (as amended) in moving his motion. He argued that, but for Otarigho’s courage, a major fire disaster, which would have claimed several lives and property, could have happened in his Senatorial district.
The Delta Central lawmaker noted that the tanker driver’s “extraordinary display of courage, reflex application of special driving skills, and huge risk to his own life, prevented a huge national tragedy and catastrophe by driving a burning tanker loaded with inflammable petroleum products from residential areas to safety so that thousands of our people may not die in an inferno that would also have consumed so much property in Agbarho, Delta State on Friday, 10th June 2022″.
Otarigho’s audacious act of heroism, he stressed, had saved the nation from national tragedy and mourning.
Accordingly, the Senate resolved to “invite Mr Ejiro Otarigho to the Chamber of the Senate for public commendation by the President of the Senate”. It also recommended him to President Muhammadu Buhari for a befitting National Honour “for his extraordinary act of bravery, courage and skill that prevented the loss of human lives and property on a massive scale”.
Senate President, Dr Ahmad Lawan, who presided over plenary, hailed Otarigho for risking his life to drive the burning truck out of residential area to save lives.
