Coming on the heels of the recent Abule-Ado blast in Lagos that left about 22 persons dead, many people injured and over 80 houses destroyed, the speculations trailing the March 28 explosion in Akure, Ondo State, are understandable. There is a semblance between the March 15 Lagos incident and the Ondo blast, which took place in Ilu-Abo community in Akure North Local Government Area of the state. The blast destroyed over 50 houses and left scores of people injured. The impact of the explosion was felt kilometres away from the scene.
Reports quoted Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who visited the scene, as saying that the explosion occurred when a convoy was transporting explosives to a storage facility in a neighboring state.
According to him, in course of the movement, “security personnel and other individuals transporting the ordinances noticed smoke from the vehicle. After several attempts to extinguish the resulting fire failed, the vehicle and its consignment ignited causing a massive explosion that was felt in Akure and its environs.” The State’s Commissioner of Police, Undie Adie, added that the explosive belonged to a construction company based in Edo State. Despite the explanations, residents are still speculating the cause of the blast.
It is, therefore, commendable that the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, has set up a Special Investigation Team to unravel the cause of the explosion. The team is headed by Maikudi Shehu, Commissioner of Police in charge of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit, Force Headquarters, Abuja. Other members of the team include police officers from the Police Bomb Disposal Squad, a specialised arm of the police that oversees explosives and ordinance operations. The police investigation team will work jointly with experts from the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency.
We welcome the move by the IGP to unravel the cause of the explosion. It is a step in the right direction. It is also expected that the panel will go into action with dispatch and unearth the cause of the incident. For some time now, Nigeria has reeled under the spectre of insecurity and terrorist attacks in various parts of the country. It is unfortunate that the cause of Akure explosion is still being speculated.
The casual explanation of the blast as a mere accident, in the same way the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) explained the Abule-Ado case, is certainly not the right way to go. The NNPC had claimed that the explosion was caused by a truck after it hit some gas cylinders stacked in a gas processing plant located near NNPC’s 2B pipeline right of way. The explanation, however, did not identify who drove the truck and what the truck was doing on a pipeline at that time of the day. It also did not say whether the content of the truck was weaponised or not.
That has left many gaps in the explanation. Members of the public had also made wild claims on the cause of the explosion. Nigerians expect that the panel set up by the state government to investigate the matter will come up with the cause of the explosion soon after the explosion. But more than two weeks after the incident, no report has been released.
The delay by the panel set up by the Lagos State Government on the Abule-Ado incident in turning up its report on the actual cause of the blast has created room for speculations by the victims and other members of the society. The Akure incident should not be allowed to follow this route. Even if it turns out to be a case of accident, a proper investigation by the IGP panel should make recommendations to guard against such incidents in future. At the same time, we think that the movement of combustible materials should be handled with utmost care. This should be done by experts.
We, therefore, recommend that everything humanly possible must be done to ensure that this investigation does not go the way of previous ones that did not see the light of the day. We believe that the prompt report on the cause of the explosion will go a long way in guarding against similar incidents in the future. We urge well-meaning individuals and groups who may have valid information on the blast to avail such to the panel in order to quicken the pace of investigation.