As victims of last Tuesday’s explosion in Ibadan continue to count their losses, a former director of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Dr Olusegun Edward Ojo, on Sunday, tasked the security agencies, Federal Government and Oyo State government not to limit investigations into the explosives and dynamites of a resident miner as the cause of the incident.
He, however, commended Governor Seyi Makinde of Oyo State for his prompt response to the explosion incident and emphasised the need to widen the scope of the investigation to discover the immediate and remote causes of the explosion.
Ojo, who is former director of NEMA in charge of relief and rehabilitation, in a statement forwarded to Tribune Online, hinted that “with the massive extent of the devastation; it is very critical that other much more intricate findings on the remote and immediate causes of this incident are embarked upon to prevent a repeat of this anywhere in Oyo state or Nigeria in general.”
According to the statement, “I visited the explosion site on Friday for the second time; to see what activities were going on and to possibly lend my experience to the process.
“My interest was fuelled by the fact that I had spent a very good part of my active service life until recently in local and international humanitarian interventions such as the Ikeja ammunition bomb blast of 2002; the Bell View and the Sosoliso plane crash in 2005; and part of the 2010 Haiti earthquake humanitarian intervention. I was also the National Focal Person on UNDRR’s proactive paradigm in Disaster Risk Reduction,” Ojo posited.
The statement reads further: “I reckon that epidemiological, sanitation and health management were also ongoing to prevent the spread of diseases. But we cannot and must not just simply conclude and go to sleep that the Dejo Oyelese explosion incident was occasioned by explosives in the premises of the Malian miners.
“This is because of the unimaginable magnitude of the material devastation and loss of lives. We should think out of the box and search widely for other possibilities and consequences given the perennial act of terrorism in the country; and even for remote terrestrial astronomical possibilities as being speculated in some quarters.
“This incident is indeed a good opportunity to learn new lessons, and to reexamine and rejig our community/state-wide security architecture; the not-too-salutary environmental and town planning practices/approvals of incompatible land uses in the city of Ibadan.
“For example, petrol and cooking gas filling stations are located close to business concerns and dense residential areas in some parts of the city without due consideration for possible explosions, fire incidents, and other hazard risk implications.
“The Dejo Oyelese incident is also a great opportunity to rebuild back better by strengthening our relevant institutions and governance processes. We must sit down to reexamine and identify our inherent living contradictions; vulnerabilities and hazard risk elements within the municipalities and Oyo state-wide; and take measures to prevent or mitigate other unimaginable disaster risks and emergencies soon, “the statement concluded.
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