The dust is yet to settle on the explosion which rocked Ibadan on Tuesday, January 18, and literally shook the capital of Oyo State. While the government and relevant agencies are working to get to the root of what transpired, senior citizen victims shared their survival stories with PAUL OMOROGBE.
In an exclusive interview with Nigerian Tribune, a former Dean of Postgraduate School, University of Ibadan, Professor Lucas Olabode, said “It was the most unexpected thing in my life that could ever happen. It was like having the sun shining now and it suddenly turns to night. It was a sudden thing.”
He shared the story of how the explosion met him and what happened thereafter.
“I was watching football, Namibia versus Tunisia. It was the second half. In fact, that day, I said, my day is set for me. After that match, I will watch Mali versus South Africa, because I had my sabbatical in South Africa, so I was interested in the South African match. I was anticipating it. After the matches, I planned to watch my favourite TV programme on BBC, that is Hard Talk. Then I go to sleep.
“But around 7.30pm, while the match between Namibia and Tunisia was still on, I heard a deafening noise. I even thought it was thunder. My househelp came. She heard me shouting, ‘Jesus, Jesus, Jesus!’
“My wife would have been a victim but for the intervention of a telephone call. She wanted to go upstairs. But then, she went to answer the phone. If she went upstairs, the ceiling could have collapsed on her. We, thank God.”
The former member of the governing council of the University of Ibadan said, “After this episode, we went out on the street. It was so dark. I could not see the persons close to me because of the smoke and the dust. We went further down the street and saw people walking aimlessly about. Nobody knew what was happening.
“Eventually, we saw some security forces coming. People were saying all sorts of things about the cause. They said something electrical blew up or that a house caught fire. Some even said it was a volcanic eruption – I said that’s not common here! They argued that there used to be tremors in Ijebu and Ibadan in those days. Then they said it was Gasland. I said Gasland is a bit far from us. Then they said it was a petrol station. Then they said Ace Mall had collapsed.
“Then the protocol officer of the governor came to us. He said the governor had said that people who were wounded should be taken to the hospital and the government will be responsible. He said people who have no accommodation or who cannot stay in their house that day should go to a hotel. In fact, he offered me a particular hotel.”
Professor Olabode said that he declined the offer. Instead he asked “the protocol officer to do me a favour. I said, ‘Please, you can give me a vehicle to take me to my daughter’s house at Kongi.’ He helped me and took me there.
“But before we went, my wife went inside to take the flashlight. She told me that there was devastation in the house and the ceiling has come down. I couldn’t see anything that night.
“The following morning, I saw the havoc in my house. And I counted myself as one of the lucky ones.
“In fact, one of my boys said, my own was a scratch compared to what happened at ground zero.
“My windows were mangled. My doors were mangled. My ceiling came down. And then the roof was perforated.”
Looking forward
Speaking on what should happen next, Professor Olabode said: “Now, what I am looking for? With the help of my friends and my children, I want to make some palliative repairs.
“The structural engineers (from the state government) have come. They said there are no cracks, so the structure is not affected. So, I want to repair my house. Then they said we should go and put down our names at Oyo State Housing Corporation.”
He expressed displeasure that nobody has been brought to book more than a week after the event.
“In our country, we make things difficult for ourselves. The government has its fault. The people have their faults.
“This is man-made injury to another man. I didn’t keep explosives in my house. I’m not involved in that. I’m a retired person. I want to live the rest of my life peacefully. No matter how long – if it’s two years, five years, 10 years – that’s in God’s hands. But I don’t want to live in panic.
“The little pension I have, I use it. It is supplemented by my children. And that’s okay. That’s what I want to live my life.
“But for somebody to bring in an explosive to where I live, which I don’t know about, it’s very wicked. Callous! I don’t know how the government allowed that. At least, where I’ve lived before, even in some parts of Africa, you cannot bring things like that without the government detecting.
“I want the government to help the victims. We are mostly old people here. We shouldn’t suffer in our old age!”
Meanwhile, there have been concerns that persons from faraway locations who may have not been affected by the explosions have registered their names with the government as victims of the blast.
Nigerian Tribune spoke with Chief Iyiola Oladokun, the president of Dejo Oyelese Vigilante Group, an association for residents of Dejo Oyelese Street.
Asked whether he was concerned that at the end of the day, his own people might be somehow neglected or shortchanged by the time compensation begins, he said, “Well, our members raise issues like that in our meeting that has just been concluded. But I appealed to our people — the government is for everybody! What has happened, happened and affected people beyond this estate. The government set up the committee to attend to everybody that has affected. So it’s for the committee now to do a thorough job in identifying the real victims among all those that are coming to them to register.
Oladokun, a former deputy governor of Oyo State, added that “In order to assist our own people, what we have come up with is to collate our own data from this end.
“As a matter of fact, we are even commissioning a documentary, video evidence, that will show who and where is affected and this can be cross-checked from our own record that we are compiling.
“People that have been coming to sympathise with us here have told us that even up to 15 kilometers away from this place, they felt what happened.
“Okay, look at Igboagala Estate at Yemetu. Immediately, the thing happened. A friend that I called that could have rushed down here told me the same thing happened there. So, he also was affected. I had to call somebody else who came to evacuate us from this place. So if somebody from that place comes, should I say they should not attend to him?
“So, it is not out of place for people to come from various places if they are affected. The government itself is affected. UCH is affected. So, the only thing that will help the government to put credibility to whatever they will come up with is verifying the claims of everybody that comes to them.”
Speaking about how the explosion affected him and how he was faring now, Oladokun told Nigerian Tribune that “I give glory to God. It met me hale and hearty. Today, I’m hale and hearty. It was by the grace of God.
“Those that have asked me before, I told them, I and my wife walked out of the rubbles unharmed. That was the grace of God!”