Emergency rescuers have been hard at work, searching for the injured and survivors after an explosion rocked Oyo state on Tuesday night. It has been reported that this blast shook buildings, collapsed some and sent panicked, anxious residents onto the streets.
The cause of the blast has been attributed to illegal mining activities from unknown persons, according to Governor Makinde, the Oyo State governor.
The explosion was heard in the Oyo state capital Ibadan, about 130 km (80 miles) from the country’s commercial capital, Lagos.
Several residents have said that the blast shattered windows of their homes, with some X users posting pictures and videos from their homes that had been affected.
Meanwhile, the state government had quickly released a statement saying:
“Relevant agencies are presently carrying out search and rescue operations at the scene of the incident. Residents of the state are encouraged to remain calm as the Oyo State Government is working to bring normalcy to the state.”The state’s commissioner for information, Prince Dotun Oyelade had remarked that ” the residents of Ibadan and its immediate environ experienced an uncommon explosion at about 8 p.m. (19:00 GMT) this evening, Tuesday, 16 Jan. 2024.”
As at the time of filing this report, the State governor has assured residents affected that the State government will be paying the bills of all the persons who had been injured from the explosion, and would provide temporary accommodation to all those who had lost their houses due to the unfortunate incident.
More to come…
