…Says some people are still missing
…Launch Smart Bodija initiative
By Adeyinka Adeniran
Residents of the immediate and external environments affected by the recent blast in Ibadan under the aegis of Bodija Estate Residents Association (BERA) have appealed to government at both the federal and state levels to be thorough in the investigation of the cause of the recent blast that rocked Dejo Oyelese Street, Adeyi Area, Old Bodija, Ibadan last week.
If done, the residents said the outcome will serve as a learning curve and yardstick to preventing likely future recurrence by creating more awareness and punitive measures to perpetrators.
This is as the residents said their records have still indicated that about eight or nine persons are still yet to be accounted for since the incident.
President of BERA, Dr Muyiwa Bamgbose made the appeal on Wednesday during an emergency meeting of the residents and press conference held at Arigidi Street.
The meeting also afforded some victims of the incident to narrate their experience and ordeals as a way of correcting some misgivings about the incident.
While thanking the state government for the response in providing succor to the victims, the BERA President said more still need to be learnt and done in meeting up with international standards on rescue efforts.
Bamgbose said “Government should not take this thing of the face value. They must dig deep to unravel the cause of the explosion.
“It is dangerous just to assume that it was dynamite that led to the explosion without concluding thorough investigation. We are pleading that necessary things should be done to ascertain the true causes and those behind it.
“What happened was beyond our imagination. No one could have believed or imagined the presence of such dangerous things in our estate.
“Our concern was that lives were lost, homes and buildings were damaged and some people are still missing. We should not take anything on the face value.
“Based on what we have gathered, between eight and nine persons have not been accounted for. The level of injury is far more than what was reported because there are many people who didn’t report themselves in any of the designated hospitals by the government.
“We need indebt research to find out and analyse what happened. Our rescue efforts was not well organised. We can improve on it. Yes, it is the first of its kind of an incident, the government didn’t do badly but we can up our game for future need.”
He said with the development, the Association is launching an initiative to help residents know each other better tagged “Know-Your-Neighbour” under the Smart Bodija initiative
“Almost 8-9 people are still missing or yet to be accounted for. A lot of people paid for their medical treatment because they didn’t go to any of the designated hospitals.
“We appreciate some of these hospitals too, because some of them initially started treating people without taking records as a way of giving first aid to victims before government announced to take care of medical bills.
“Also, there are some people who could not go to an hotel to claim free accommodation but it could have been better if there was a card or tag that they could take there.
“We are concern that our government could even be shortchanged with some of these sincere efforts. The government has shown a great willingness from the state to the Federal to address the incident.
“Our best is still short of world best, we still need to learn from that experience being the first of its kind in the state. We are with that rolling out an initiative called ‘know-your-neighbours’ so that we can know each other, under our ‘Smart Bodija initiative’.
“The core pillars of the initiative covers: security, economic development, liveability and recovery and restoration.”
Some of the residents who gave different accounts of the incidents narrated the extent of loss.
Mr Taiwo Salami whose house was about three buildings away from the site of the explosion said he lost all his property completely including house, cars amd every belongings in the building.
He however said his wife and daughter who suffered severe injury in the incident are both responding to treatment.
Mrs Bisi Olasope, Rauf Ishola and Chief Dayo Morakinyo were also thankful to God for sparing their lives and their loved ones after the incident saying damages to their property and belongings count little when compared to their lives.
