The Special Adviser on Security to Oyo State Governor, CP Fatai Owoseeni, (retd.), has warned against security threat posed by some hoodlums and armed robbers among the sympathisers at the site of explosion that occured at Dejo Oyelese Street, Bodija, Ibadan, Oyo State, on Tuesday night.
Owoseni gave this warning while speaking with newsmen during his visit to the the site on Wednesday.
The Security Adviser equally pointed out that they can’t assess the level of the destruction caused by the explosion, stating that the landlords and victims of the unfortunate incident would not be able to talk to anyone at the moment.
He then urged everyone to evacuate the site, while describing some of the spectators as hoodlums and are armed robbers who will likely take advantage of the situation to carrying out their evil acts.
Owoseni said, “You can’t do any assessments now. It is still ongoing exercise. The rescue operation is still working on the site. The landlords and victims of these house are still picking bit and pieces of the loss together.
“You can even talk to them to say you want to do evaluations. That is why a kind of situation has been created in the premises of housing corporation. We have been advising people to go that scene we created as emergency office.
“The expert, the disaster management have been advising the victims, the residents and the landlords to go there in order to give us information as soon as possible.”
On the security of the site, he said, “That is why the security agencies have been trying to evacuate the spectators from the place because some of these people you see here have no connection are hoodlums, armed robbers, they don’t have any connection with this place. They are security threat to us. Some houses don’t have roofs, doors, windows, so id we allow these people to lay around here the are security threat to us.
“We can’t also say whether there are secondary explosion. The more we able to get out of this place the better for us. So if there is second explosion we won’t lost more lives”, he added.
Also, the Deputy Governor of Oyo State, Adebayo Adeleke Lawal who also visited the site of the explosion site urged the crowd to evacuate in order to allow the rescue operation team carry out their assignments
Noting that there might also be secondary explosion, the deputy Governor called on all security agencies at the scene including Federal Road Safety Corps, Nigeria Police Force and National Security and Civil Defence Corps to ensure everyone leave this site with immediate effect.
“Rescue operation has commenced in earnest. You know the crowd is much. We encourage and urge our people to go home and be calm. The situation is under control as we speak. We must allow rescue operation to commence. That is the message.
“We will move together with the crowd now. Nobody should be left behind”, he said.
He then urged the FRSC, NSDC and the Police to move the crowd out of the site, saying, “Let’s sort them out of this place because rescue operation is ongoing and we don’t know whether there is still devices at the site that are yet to explode. So please in the interest of everyone, let us leave this and allow rescue operation to continue.
Ealier, a yet-to-be-identified dead body was recovered from the explosion site.
This was revealed in a 35 seconds shared by our correspondent on Wednesday morning.
In the video, the National Security and Civil Defence Corps in collaboration with Federal Road Safety Corps were seen clearing the body in preparation to take it to mortuary.
