The governor of Oyo State, Engineer Seyi Makinde, announced on Wednesday night that documents at the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC) have identified the true owners of the explosives that caused the enormous explosion that occurred Tuesday night in the Bodija neighbourhood of the state capital, Ibadan.
He claimed that some foreign nationals were identified in the paperwork as the proprietors of the mining company that was in charge of the explosives.
Makinde said that one more person has passed away in an unidentified hospital, bringing the total number of fatalities from the tragic explosion to three.
“We are trying to uncover the identities of the people. We’ve done a few fact-finding on the company involved and yes, there are indeed some foreign names on the CAC documents of the company involved but these are still early days. We don’t have anything to cover,” the governor said.
Makinde said the state has identified an individual of interest that security agents would be inviting for questioning.
“It is not anything that has to do with banditry and insurgency but illegal miners that stored explosives in a residential area,” Governor Makinde reiterated.
He said the state government has no reason for cover-up and that the people of the state should trust his administration.
Makinde said he would seek presidential approval for miners to store explosives with the military, and that he would sign an Executive Order in the coming days to that effect.
The governor said those whose houses were destroyed had been provided with temporary shelter in hotels in Bodija and in the Agodi areas of the state capital.
On the latest casualty figure, he said: “We recovered one individual alive today (Wednesday) under the rubble. 60 of the 77 people hospitalised have been discharged.”
