….As State Assembly reveals name of alleged miner behind  explosion

Oyo State Government has said operators of the illegal mining and gemstone markets discovered in Ibadan claimed to have approvals from the Federal Government.

Special Adviser to Oyo State Governor’s on Security, Fatai Owoseni, disclosed this in an interview with Arise Television on Thursday.

A recent explosion which occurred in Ibadan as a result of explosions in stores by illegal miners had left losses of lives.

The security adviser noted that the security agencies and the government could not know of all the happenings in the State if the citizens within the State did not provide credible information to the agencies.

Owoseni said, “For the past two years, the Oyo State governor has been engaging the Federal Government with regards to mining. We’ve discovered that there is an illegal mining market, a gemstone market in Ibadan around Ojoo and populated by foreigners.

“And when you go there that you want to do any operation, either as police or state apparatus, they will show you approval which they have gotten from the Federal Government.”

Owoseni said that there is a lot of decadence in the mining industry from those who are supposed to be in charge of monitoring miners by conducting checks.

He said, “The conditions are that you must have a magazine, that’s like a storage where you should keep these things,” going on to say that “along the line of maybe lackadaisical attitude, the fellows that will be asked to escort the buyers, the users, they may not do the right thing.

“Some of the people that we apply for those things, the address they indicate is not the address where they’ve taken the things to. Rather than taking them to the magazines or the storage close to the area where they will use it, they will divert these things.”

Owoseni further stated, “The notion that Nigerians and everyone has that the security people must know everything, well, it’s a bit right, but at the same time, wrong.

“The concept and philosophy guiding security work, especially policing, is that the people are the police. Without credible intelligence, the security people would not know anything.

“People don’t give information, intelligence reports. If landlords want to also take undue benefits of, oh, you know these people are doing bad business, and because they pay you a lot of money, you keep your mouth shut. So, this is the kind of thing you have.”

According to Owoseni, if there were reports of such illegal activities in those areas, the government would have acted on it immediately.

He said, “Government won’t know if the people don’t give information. People have come up to say some people said they’ve reported that before. Why is it now that all that information is coming out? That is number one.

“Number two, people that have talked of complicity by government or security agencies, for people that know that location, people who live there, who own houses in that area, know the calibre of people that live there.

“A former deputy governor of Oyo state lives around that place. Some eminent emeritus professors live around that place. So, these are people that cannot just be taken for granted that if such a thing has been reported, it cannot just be wished away.

“They have a very strong Landlord/Resident association. So, all these people that are talking, do they even bring this to the notice of the association? Like I said, when you have such people living in such areas, you can’t take them for granted.”

On the current death toll, Owoseni said, “As of yesterday, the governor indicated we had 3 dead persons, 77 wounded. But this morning, just before we started this interview, the security operatives in that area had just sent me a text to let me know that 2 more dead bodies were recovered this morning.”

The Security Adviser said the government has opened avenues for citizens to make credible intelligence reports.

He said, “With the interaction that his excellency Governor Seyi Makinde had had with the Security and the Intelligence Community in Oyo State, we’ve opened different avenues for people to come up with credible intelligence so that some of these areas can be checked.

“We have what we called citizens enquiry number in Oyo State, it is ‘615.’ They don’t need to know you because through 615, we’ve gotten information and some other things that happened in the State which the governor had made use of. We’ve been having face to face interaction, interface with the community.”

…Oyo Assembly reveals name of alleged miner behind  explosion

Meanwhile, the Oyo State House of Assembly has identified the person behind the explosion that rocked Ibadan as Sawani Yusuf.

While the nationality of the alleged culprit remains unconfirmed, the assembly called on security agencies to intensify efforts at bringing all connected to the explosion to book.

The House made this known during its plenary.

While speaking, Majority Leader of the House, Sanjo Adedoyin disclosed the identity of the foreigner whose property at Dejo Oyelese area of Bodija where the explosion occurred, allegedly housed the explosive device.

The deliberation followed a motion presented to the House by Adebayo Babajide, representing Ibadan North II in a motion titled: “URGENT NEED FOR ALL REGULATORY AGENCIES TO ENFORCE SAFETY PRECAUTIONS ESPECIALLY IN HANDLING AND STORING OF EXPLOSIVES (DYNAMITES) IN VIEW OF THE EXPLOSION THAT ROCKED OLD BODIJA AREA OF IBADAN ON TUESDAY, 16TH JANUARY, 2024.”

The House, while frowning at how such explosive device was brought and kept in a residential area, wondered who authorised keeping or storing such devices in the house, while querying where and how the dynamites were stored in the said building leading to the disaster.

Lawmakers in their separate submissions, lamented the explosion while noting that the Ojoo Gem Stone market remains the largest in Africa with many expatriates living within the area.

The House called on government and security agencies to expand the investigation net to ensure that no stone was left unturned in the bid to holistically address the aftermath of the explosion.

While commending Governor Seyi Makinde for his prompt response, payment of hospital bills of those who died at the incident and provision of alternative accommodation for the displaced residents, the House, equally, expressed appreciation to the Security Agencies (Nigeria Army, Nigeria Police, Civil Defence, Amotekun among others) for rising up to the occasion.

The House, particularly, commended the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Oyo State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) for their prompt deployment of manpower to the scene of the explosion, while appealing to the Federal Government and its emergency response agencies to come to the aid of victims of the blast.

Further, the House called on Security Agencies to cordon off the scene of the incident and thoroughly search the area for possible leftovers of the explosives.

While urging security agencies to embark on intelligence gathering to identify residences of other possible illegal miners and expatriates, the House further appealed to all regulatory agencies to enforce safety precautions, especially in handling and storing of explosives (dynamites), among others.

In his remark, the Speaker, Adebo Ogundoyin said, “We can discuss different angles to how the situation affects us and different solutions as to ensuring that this situation never occurs again, but for now let us wait for the outcome of the security investigation to shed more light on the happenings.

“As soon as we have more information, I’m sure we’ll be able to deliberate further as to the next action move.

“We also want the Ministry of Environment to look at the state Environmental Laws to see whether or not there are consequences for such actions that have happened and if there are not, then there are lacunae in the laws and we have to take immediate steps towards that.”

He, however, directed the House Committee on Environment and Natural Resources to investigate the provisions of the law to determine the next legislative action and ordered the committee to report its findings back to the House within one week.