Ademola Adeshina
Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural organisation, Afenifere has expressed concern at the rate of explosions at some southwest states peaking at three within two months.
Afenifere in a statement by its spokesman, Yinka Odumakin, also asked the federal government to investigate the explosion which brought down over 60 buildings and displaced hundreds of resident of a community in Akure, Ondo State recently.
The organisation demanded an inquiry into the disaster in accordance with Ordinance and Firearms Acts “to be able to determine the type of ordinances that exploded.”
According to Odumakin, all accounts indicate that the explosion occurred from a possible fire incident from a vehicle that was carrying explosives through the state.
“Though the identities of the movers have not yet been known, the police have claimed they were escorting the ordinances (bombs) when they noticed some challenges before their destination.
“The inquiry should ascertain the identities of those transporting the ordinances, the origin of the ordinances, who assigned the escorting policemen and under what circumstance and the particular destination of the Improvised Explosive Devices.
“While it awaits the outcome of the inquiry, we must express our displeasure with the rate of explosions in Yorubaland in recent time. First was the blast in Ekiti State in early February with investigation blaming it on human error.
“This was followed by the massive explosion in Abule Ado in Lagos state which was attributed to some spurious pipeline explosion which we rejected because the long-range impacts of that explosion could not have come from pipeline explosion,” he stated.
