The Governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, disclosed that initial investigations into the Ibadan explosion on Tuesday unveiled foreign names in the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) documents of the mining firm responsible for storing the explosives.
The explosion, which occurred in parts of Ibadan, resulted in casualties, injuries, and significant property damage. Speaking on Channels TV Politics Today on Wednesday, Governor Makinde stated that illegal miners, residing in a house in the Bodija area of the state capital, stored explosive devices that triggered the blast.
Governor Makinde assured that efforts would be made to identify all individuals linked to the incident. He highlighted the failure of the neighborhood association, emphasizing that they neglected to report the activities of illegal miners to law enforcement agencies.
He stated “Yes, we are trying to uncover the identity of the people involved. The company involved we have done a few fact-finding. And yes, there are indeed some foreign names in the CAC documents of the company involved, but these are still very early days. We don’t have any reason to cover anything.
“It is a failure of the neighbourhood association because we always admonish our people. If you see something that doesn’t look right, then bring it to the attention of the authorities and then they will do something about it.
So, people within this neighbourhood are aware of some of these things but it was never brought to the attention of the authority.”
To prevent the future occurrence of this tragedy, Makinde said he would seek approval from President Bola Tinubu to compel miners with explosives to store them with the military.
The governor continued, “I will be seeking approval from the President for us in Oyo State to ensure that any mining activity, anybody that has to deal with explosives, take it to storage with the military. And if they need to use it, they go there, collect it and the military will escort them to where they will use it.
“So in the days ahead, once I have the nod of Mr President, I should be signing an executive order that will make it mandatory for anybody dealing with explosives in Oyo State to have it stored with the military.
“It is still early, they are still gathering a lot of materials and they are putting them together. But I can tell you, it’s more of the quantity of what this will put together. And we don’t want to speculate. So in the hours ahead, we will be briefing the people about the exact situation”.
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