By Adeyinka Adeniran
Indications have emerged that the suspected miner that stored up dynamite that caused the massive explosion in Old Bodija, Ibadan may have been living on false identity in the neighbourhood.
This is as Corenews have reliably gathered that the picture of individual been circulated on social media as the alleged illegal miners and occupant of the building where the explosion took place is an unknown person to the residents and leadership of the Estate.
A former deputy of Oyo State, Iyiola Oladokun made the disclosure to Corenews in an interview at the weekend.
Oladokun who is the current Chairman of the Residents Association which covers the affected areas gave the name of the known occupant before the incident as Mr Camara.
He noted that, the said Camara, although not sure if a Malian or Senegalese was a known and popular figure in the neighbourhood as he was known to be regular at meetings and also committed in the payment of all assigned levies including security dues.
However, Oladokun said what he gathered from the former Chairman who handed over to him was that Camara claimed he works with a UN Agency with his job schedule requiring him to supervise activities in the whole of West Africa.
He lamented that no one could have suspected anything untowards about the suspects but did not rule out the possibilities of using such information as diversionary tactics so as not to raise any suspicion around him.
When asked if there was any suspicion around the Mr Camara, the former deputy governor said “Nobody will leave or see a snake in his roof and go inside to sleep. If we have noticed anything suspicious, we would have raised the alarm. What is associations for?
“People are spreading the picture of a supposed resident of our estate around as the occupant of the building, we don’t know that person in the picture here. The one we know here participates actively in our association meetings and payment of security dues. He goes by the name Mr. Camara.
“And there isn’t anyway for us to suspect him or raise anything untoward from him. The only thing we knew was that he was not a landlord here, he was a tenant.
“Incidentally, I believe the owner of the house is no more and maybe the children or whoever gave the place to an agent to let out, so, it is only the agent that can throw more light on his identity.
“But at least we knew Camara, he is very popular around here. Apart from coming to meetings to contribute, whenever we are doing our screening, everyone knows him and he’s popular.
“He is either a Malian or a Senegalese, I can’t say expressly. When he came to the Estate, the then Chairman said he told him he was representing a UN Agency and that he might not always be around, that he was coordinating that agency in the whole of West Africa and that he would be moving around so much.
“Probably, he used that as cover that whenever he goes to site but that was the story I was told. I can’t say how long he has been here per say but that was before I became the Chairman, maybe around 2017 or 2018 or thereabouts.”
He said the residents are awaiting the decision of the state government after the conclusion of investigation but disclosed that the leadership of the Estate residents have decided to open a register where members can register what they lose and impact on them, which he said could also help government before arriving at a decision on how to support the victims.
“We were in the sitting room. It was only just myself and my wife. We just heard a loud bang and everything is now history.
“The government has set up a committee in conjunction with NEMA, asking people to come and register.
“And on our own level, we have had an emergency Exco meeting where we decided we are going to brief our members and we have fixed a meeting for Saturday morning, we are going to open a register on our own to compile the list of victims and what happened to them, the government can use that to cross-check whatever they get and determine whatever they want to do.
“That is what we will do for now. And we have seen people showing concern by coming to us to ask what they can do. For now we only have an individuals who have contributed to our own purse. We feel things will be okay.
“If as the government has said, it is showing enough concern to convince us that it will do something tangible. We await what they will do”, Oladokun added
