Victims of Ogun gas explosion lament

Bad roads responsible for our plight
•Community leaders, residents beg Amosun to rehabilitate
roads
By Olabisi Olaleye
Mrs. Christiana Ogunfunminiwa could not hide her
excitement as she rendered praise songs to God on
Friday, December 11, 2015. The Proprietress of Noble
Land Schools, Lafenwa Itele, Ogun State, had reason to be
joyful. The night before, a gas tanker had exploded in the
area, destroying her school buildings and property worth
millions of naira.
Daily Sun learnt that about 7.30 pm that night, a gas
tanker trying to negotiate its way from the Lafenwa -Itele
major road through Ewu Ajasa, Ijagba to enable it offload
its content at the gas station on the street, fell and
exploded.
A new car parked in front of the school and other
belongings were destroyed in the resultant inferno.
Speaking to Daily Sun, Ogunfunminiwa noted: “I am truly
happy that the explosion did not occur when my children –
our students and staff – were in school. I am thanking
God because no lives were lost. And I am really glad
because it shows that I serve a living God.
“I didn’t have any premonition that such a thing would
happen. And by the time I was called that my school was
burning, I knew that we didn’t leave any electrical
appliances on in the school. When I was called around
7.45 pm, I saw a tanker burning. I was told it exploded and
that was the reason that the school got burnt because the
road it was trying to ply was right beside the school.
“As at now, the loss runs into millions of naira because
two building were completely razed down. Only one is
standing. Even that one standing will go through 90 per
cent renovation because the walls have cracked. All the
students’ desk and chairs are gone with the inferno. Even
the kindergartens’ educational toys and other things that I
cannot readily recollect now are gone and we have to
replace the different labs equipment.
“Everything boils down to bad roads. Government should
see to the Lafenwa Itele Road. Motorists are complaining
a lot. Most of us find it difficult to take out our cars
because of the bad roads. The governor had promised in
his campaign that he would see to the Lafenwa Itele Road
and we are still waiting for him to fulfil his promise.
That incident would have been avoided if the roads are
okay and the fire service would have been able to get to
the scene on time. I am using this medium to appeal to
Governor Amosun and his commissioner for works to
come to our rescue.”
Another victim, a dealer in electrical products, Mr. Afos
Ojinka could not hide his emotion as he ransacked the
remains of his badly burnt product inside what was left of
his shop. He said he lost goods worth well over N2 million
in his newly rented shop. According to him, he moved into
the new shop on the ill-fated day.
Said he: “I was in church when the incident happened. All I
know is that I moved into the new shop on Thursday,
around 3.30 pm, only to be called that the school near my
shop was burning around 8pm. I rushed down only to
discover that this place has burnt beyond recognition. I
sell only electronics. From the estimate that I have, my
loss runs into millions of naira. It’s over N2.8million. I
have the report with me. I want to go and report at the
police station. It also affected my wife’s shop. She is a
sewing mistress. All the clothes she worked on and
belonging to her customers and their materials were all
burnt in the inferno. But I thank God that no lives were
lost, although the owners of the gas tanker and station are
on the run now. The most painful thing is that I just
bought goods because of the festive season.”
Although, Chinedu Okonta, who sells bags of raw food in
bags beside Ojinka could not really salvage anything, he
was thankful that he remained unhurt. According to him,
he was outside the shop attending to a customer when the
tanker fell.
“Both the customer and I ran away. It was hellish. The
flames seemed to be angry and ready to devour anything
that night. It is my master’s shop and we have lost over
N3 million because we just stocked our shop with rice,
garri and beans because of the season.”
On his part, Alhaji Rafiu Quadri lamented that government
failed in its responsibilities to its citizenry, noting that if the
bad roads had been repaired, the incident would have been
avoided. “While the tanker was trying to navigate its way
into the inner street, it suddenly jerked and the tank got
bent. And before we knew what was happening, the
tanker’s driver came out of it and was running and
shouting that everyone should evacuate the place as the
tanker was leaking and might explode soon. But you
know, it is in the evening, and there was so much noise
from shops selling CDs as well as from commercial drivers
and motorbike operators. Before anyone could do
anything, the explosion occurred with a terrible noise. It
was after the fourth explosion that I realised that all my
glass products – I am into glass cutting – had been
shattered.
“Most of us have gone to report at the police station.
Nothing was salvaged. No one could move close to the
inferno because it was so ferocious and even before the
Ogun State fire service came, everything was lost. What I
lost in my shop is over N500, 000.  We are asking
Governor Amosun to come to our aid and construct our
roads in Lafenwa Itele. If the roads were good, fire service
wouldn’t find it difficult to get here. And maybe we
wouldn’t have lost everything,” he said.
Chairman of Liberty Community Development Association
(CDA) under Itele Awori area CDC, Alhaji Shuaib Ade
Mohammed also maintained that the incident happened
because the roads were bad.
“We are appealing to the government to come to our
assistance. We are grateful that the unfortunate incident
did not happen during the day because the school affected
would have lost so many children in the inferno. And I can
say 85 per cent of people in the Lafenwa-Itele area have
one or more of their children attending the Noble Land
school. We are appealing to government to come and help
us repair our roads. These bad roads are taking their toll
on most of us in this area.
“As we speak, the owner of the gas fill ing station is on the
run and we are asking government to intervene so that the
man can come out and compensate shop owners whose
goods were destroyed by the inferno.”
Speaking in the same vein, Prince Olatunji Onaolapo,
Chairman Itele Awori Area Community Development
Committee explained that the gas tanker ought to have
Goods In Transit Insurance (GIT). He said that would have
ensured compensation for those that suffered losses in the
inferno. He also blamed government for not repairing the
bad roads in the area.
“We have been in this dilemma for long and if the roads
are good, this incident would have been completely
avoided. A similar incident happened in 2013 at Ayobo,
which claimed more than two lives. We thank God that
these incidents usually happen during the night. We have
written several letters to the governor and commissioner.
We want government to intervene.”
He said a campaign would be launched on December 17 to
solicit for funds to repair the roads temporarily.
“We’ve been fixing the roads for seven years. Even the
roads constructed during the administration of Otunba
Gbenga Daniel did not last up to four years because there
was no drainage. If there is drainage, there won’t be much
problem. The one at Ayetoro -Itele, we spent N4.6 million
to dredge, grade and extricate. We are starting another
one by the grace of God, if our people are willing to
support. Already, people have become weary. Many
businesses are on the verge of collapse because of lack of
patronage due to bad roads. The community does its own
electrification. We bought about 45 pieces of 500 KVA
transformers. We are not seeing any government’s impact
at all. The governor should not pay lip service to our
plight. We are appealing to him to remember us in this
area.”