Afenifere, the Yoruba pan-socio cultural group has expressed its heartfelt sympathy with the government and people of Ondo state over the explosion that occurred on Akure-Owo road early hours of Saturday.
In a statement signed by the national publicity secretary, Yinka Odumakin, the group said all accounts so far indicate that the explosion occurred from a possible fire incident from a vehicle that was carrying explosives through the state.
He said though the identities of the movers are not yet known, the police have claimed they were escorting the ordinances (bombs) when they noticed some challenge.
Noting that while the group has nothing to contradict the stated accounts yet, it demanded that an inquiry into this disaster in accordance with Ordinance and Fiream Acts be carried out to be able to determine the type of ordinances that exploded.
It added that the inquiry should be able to ascertain the following : The identities of those transporting the ordinances, the origin of the ordinances, who assigned the escorting policemen and under what circumstance, and where was the destination of the Imppviesed Explosive Devices.
The group spokesperson said while Nigerians and the whole world wait for answers, Afenifere expresses displeasure with the rate of explosions in Yorubaland in recent time. First was the blast in Ekiti state in early February this year with investigation blaming it on “human error”. It was followed by the massive explosion in Abule Ado in Lagos which was attributed to some spurious pipeline explosion which the group rejected because the long-range impacts of that explosion could not have come from pipeline explosion.
The group added that till date, identity of the owners of the articulated vehicles found on the scene of the Lagos explosion while the number of casualties and level of suggested damage done to Catholic owned Bethlehem School suggested deliberate targeting.