Abdulrahman Zakariyau
The Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, says 60 out of the 77 victims of the Ibadan explosion have been treated and discharged.
An explosion rocked parts of Ibadan on Tuesday, leaving some persons dead, while many were reported injured, with property worth millions of naira damaged.
Makinde, on Wednesday, said preliminary investigations revealed that illegal miners occupying one of the houses in the Bodija area of the state capital stored explosive devices which caused the blast.
The governor said two persons lost their lives, while 77 people got injured.
The governor, while appearing on Channels TV Politics Today, Wednesday revealed that the blast was caused by illegal miners who stored explosives in residential areas.
Makinde confirmed that the blast had nothing to do with insurgents or banditry and vowed to bring the perpetrators to book.
He stated, “Our situation is that we have now lost about three lives. One individual was confirmed dead today and also recovered the corpse. But also, on the good side, we were able to recover an individual alive earlier today from under the rubble. So it’s been a feeling of devastation.
“What I will say is that the government is completely on top of the situation; out of the 77 that were involved yesterday night, about 60 have been treated and discharged. The majority of them have been rendered homeless, and we have provided temporary accommodation for them.
“And when I visited Ground Zero this afternoon, I asked that anybody living within a 50-meter radius of Ground Zero should leave because we don’t know much about the structural integrity of those buildings.
“The truth is that we have identified the company involved with the storage of explosive devices in that particular building; we have an individual of interest that the security agencies should be invited for questioning.
“I maintain my position that anyone that contributed to put this tragedy upon us, we will bring them to book.
“It is not anything that has to do with banditry or insurgency. It is simply illegal miners who decided to go to an area that is meant for people to live in and were using that place for storage of explosives.”
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