On Tuesday night, the explosion was felt in the Agbowo, Sango, Orogun and Bodija areas of the city which led to deaths, injuries and the destruction of houses and other property.
The victims of the explosion that ravaged a part of Bodija area in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital have described their losses as not quantifiable.
On Tuesday night, the explosion was felt in the Agbowo, Sango, Orogun and Bodija areas of the city which led to deaths, injuries and the destruction of houses and other property.
The incident was caused by explosives stored by illegal miners occupying a house in the Bodija area of the city, according to the state governor, Mr Seyi Makinde.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) also confirmed that over 20 houses and places of residence were affected in the incident.
The agency made this known in a statement issued on Wednesday morning, adding that it was yet to determine the number of casualties at the time.
Speaking to SaharaReporters during a visit to the scene of the incident, the victims said that the damage caused by the explosion could not be quantified or replaced.
“You know you can quantify material things. Material things can always be replaced. But you cannot quantify trauma.
“These traumatic experiences everybody here went through. My daughter could not sleep all night, even I could not sleep. You can’t quantify that; you can’t put a value on that. Most of the people, the elderly, you can’t quantify how devastated and traumatised they are,” one of the victims who lost their homes to the explosion, Taiwo Salami, said.
Another victim, Owolabi Salami, blamed the incident on bad governance and systematic failure in the country.
He said, “This is the aftermath of the ineptitude in government, whether they were illegal miners in which case they should never have had access to the dynamite in the first place to store in the residential area.
“And even if they were legal miners, they ought to be controlled and monitored to ensure that all these things are appropriately kept. Now look at this damage, who’s going to bear all of this? The lives can no longer be replaced. Many have been injured. Someone never walks again.
“So governments across the country, they need to step up and do that which they ought to really do, which is to maintain the safety and lives of the citizenry. This should never have happened. Where on earth do you store dynamite in a residential home? Which agency was responsible for giving the approvals for you to have them if the first place? So we continue to pay this price for greed, ineptitude and corruption. Some people need to wake up. We can’t take this every time. And it’s not just in Ibadan, it’s in Zamfara, it’s in Borno, it’s in Kastina, it’s in the Niger Delta. What is going on? Why can’t we just put a stop to all of this greed?”
“There’s no punishment. None that can even be appropriate or commensurate with what has happened, not even if you jail them. The key thing is it should never have happened,” he added.
Another victim who spoke to SaharaReporters said, “Everybody is just talking about different kind of theories. We just heard explosion and that was all. If anybody heard that kind of explosion, you would first of all try to save yourself. You don’t start asking who set fire to my house. You first of all take measures to stop the fire before you start asking questions.”
“Up till now, we don’t even what really has happened. Nobody knows. The extent of damage is not even quantifiable,” she added.