By the time the Pastor and several other people who were flung in different directions, with bruises – and other minor injuries – recovered, the sky had turned dark – black smoke accompanied by a mixture of purple and red fire raged uncontrollably, as it covered the atmosphere. WAP Investigates the reality of a mystery deadly explosion that echoed across Lagos
It was 8:30 on the morning of Sunday 15 March, Mr. Sunday Olorunwa, a church worker at a white garment Christian, sect sent his child to purchase charcoal to burn incense during church service which would begin in one hour.
Some minutes later, his child ran back with the charcoal in hand, calling his father’s attention to a thick white flame gushing from the ground less than 50-metres from where he stood. Few minutes after, their lives and that of thousands of others living in the town changed forever.
“It was my child that tapped me, daddy daddy, so when I looked back, I saw the flame,” Mr. Sunday told this reporter in Yoruba Language as he pointed his hands at the direction the disaster started from. “I didn’t know what it was, so I called the Pastor to come and see. And then I started shouting run for your lives. So, all of us ran.”
Pastor Kehinde, the leader of CCC Ileri Oluwa Parish, Soba Town, a calm looking man in his 60s, with grey beards and a bald head, told The West African Pilot News (WAP) in Yoruba Language, that he and about a dozen people from the church took to their heels.
“So, I started shouting at people to run and that the flame didn’t look like what one could inhale. In less than a minute of running, the thing exploded, and I felt something push me,” he said with a straight face but eyes that clearly showed he was traumatised by the incident.
By the time the Pastor and several other people who were flung in different directions, with bruises – and other minor injuries – recovered, the sky had turned dark – black smoke accompanied by a mixture of purple and red fire raged uncontrollably, as it covered the atmosphere. Residents told this reporter that the air smelled like petrol.
Several houses had collapsed with people trapped under them. Many cars looked burnt and mangled like they were being prepared for melting.
The huge bang came as a shock to Mr. Vitalis, a businessman, who was relaxing with his child in his living room. He said the roof of his building was blown off and his ceiling crashed on him and child. Several buildings within 50-metre radius, collapsed. The force from the explosion blew of the roofs and shattered the windows of several buildings.
Before emergency rescue authorities arrived, residents rushed to put out the fire on several buildings and cars. While some residents rushed into burning and collapsing buildings to salvage some properties, other residents who had minimal damages to their buildings ran towards a Catholic Church-owned girl boarding school – Bethlehem Girls College (BGC). The school is located within a few metres to the explosion. Some rescuers told WAP that they heard the girls who were trapped in the fenced school compound crying and screaming “please save our lives.”
“After I had saved my people, when we heard the girls shouting, we ran to the school, while some people climbed on the fence (had bladed security wire on it) and pulled the girls out, I and some people ran to make a hole on the fence,” Mr. Sunday said as he showed me bruises he sustained while rescuing the girls.
The girls were in the chapel when the explosion happened. Residents told this reporter that several buildings collapsed inside the compound. The chapel, classroom blocks and offices imploded. The dormitory and a few other buildings stood with huge holes on them. The girls said the school’s administrator, Reverend Sister Henrietta Alokha, died while trying to rescue them. Four other members of staff also died.
Chosen street is one of the worst hit. After the explosion, fire, powered by petrol which leaked into the street’s drainage – filled with water because it had rained a day before. This reporter saw a compound with many fish tanks burnt down. Also on Linus street, a nurse at Health Wise and Stores was just returning to her store after the incident. With a face that portrayed that she had resigned to fate, she told this reporter as she made effort to clean the store that she did not know what she lost yet.
Nigerian authorities said 22 people died. But residence told WAP that the figure was incorrect. They claimed more bodies were recovered. Official records show that 57 persons sustained varying levels of injuries, eight schools, 170 houses and 43 vehicles were destroyed by the explosion. WAP learned that emergency rescue workers arrived the scene early and waited for six days to put out the fire in case it occurred again.
When The West African Pilot News visited the explosion site, some days after the explosion, Soba Town bore semblance to war-torn Syria or the aftermath of the bomb dropped on two Japanese cities – Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many residents had fled the town. Metal scavengers could be seen picking and stealing items.
When The West African Pilot News visited the explosion site, some days after the explosion, Soba Town bore semblance to war-torn Syria or the aftermath of the bomb dropped on two Japanese cities – Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Many residents had fled the town. Metal scavengers could be seen picking and stealing items.
This reporter overheard a scavenger telling his peers that he found air conditioner and a generator in a house and would return to steal the items. Several residents said they were unhappy that they had to worry about their properties being stolen in addition to the trauma of the explosion. They accused security officials of agencies such as the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA), Lagos Neighbourhood Safety Corps and the Nigeria Police of allegedly conniving to sell stolen properties and scraps recovered from the rubbles.
“Ever since it (explosion) happened, they’ve been using style to rub us in this area,” Mr. Segun, a resident told me, visibly annoyed. “Somebody said that this explosion rendered them homeless, they will still come and still molest us in our area. Every night, they say they are taking the scrap metals back to steel companies. Why is it that they are doing it at night, why didn’t they do it in the daytime since they are government officials?”
He lamented that the incident affected them economically. Mr. Segun said many people whose stores had been destroyed were struggling financially.
But the residents of Soba Town are unhappy about what the government said caused the blast. They claimed that the explosion was not caused by a gas pipeline, they alleged that it was caused by a bomb and called for an investigation.
“Let nobody tell us what is not correct. It was a bomb. The blast was heard in many parts of Lagos, up to Seme border. The target was the school and trade fair. They planned to level this area. Look around, which kind of explosion would cause this type of damage?
“Look at my house, see its distance to the explosion site. The roof was blown off,” a landlord in the area said.
In a press release signed by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Dr. Kennie Obateru, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), said it was a gas explosion caused by a truck.
“The reported explosion which rocked Abule Ado Area of Lagos State in the early hours of the day was as a result of gas explosion which occurred after a truck hit some gas cylinders stacked in a gas processing plant located near the corporation’s system 2B Pipeline Right of Way,” the statement partly read.
However, many residents disagree with the NNPC. They said the NNPC and the Nigerian governments were not truthful. Mr. Sunday, referring to a pipeline explosion close to FESTAC, that occurred six years ago, which was caused by vandals, the entire length of the gas pipeline exploded. He claimed that if the explosion in Soba Town was caused by gas, the entire length of the pipeline would have exploded, instead of a single spot the explosion happened.
“This explosion happened in an open place. It could not have been vandals because people would not allow vandals to destroy gas pipeline close to their properties. This incident is a bomb blast,” He said.
“This explosion happened in an open place. It could not have been vandals because people would not allow vandals to destroy gas pipeline close to their properties. This incident is a bomb blast,” He said.
Mr. Sunday, whose house is located about 30-metres from the point of explosion offered to take this reporter to the point the explosion started to explain why he disagreed with the NNPC.
He said the truck which NNPC claimed hit the gas cylinders was neither near the pipeline nor was there a gas processing plant located close to the vehicle.
This reporter observed that one gas processing plant is located about 150-metres from the point the explosion occurred, and the truck.
“The truck was carrying hard core (granite). The explosion happened on Sunday and they said the vehicle developed fault on Friday night. So NNPC saying the truck hit a gas plant, please look at it, is there a gas plant there?” Mr. Sunday asked this reporter.
He also said there was no way the truck could hit the pipeline because last year, the pipes were laid ten feet below surface because officials said they were exposed to the surface.
“So how could a truck hit pipelines laid minimum of 10-feet below surface?” He explained. “Let us be truthful in this country. We need the truth and security.”
“So how could a truck hit pipelines laid minimum of 10-feet below surface?” He explained. “Let us be truthful in this country. We need the truth and security.”
The Deputy Executive Director of the Environment Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN), Mr. Akinbode Oluwafemi, was quoted by The Cable to have said that the explosion could be likened to some military aerial bombardment and did not sound like pipeline explosion.
“There is something suspiciously different about these explosions we have monitored and documented for several decades,” a statement by the ERA/FoEN read.
“We can’t treat this casually as an accident caused by a truck. With the current security without conducting forensic investigation on this particular blast. Not even the accidental detonation of bombs at the Ikeja cantonment caused this scale of ruins. Government must conduct comprehensive investigation to establish if this was a crime or an accident,” Mr. Oluwafemi stated.
For many of the Landlords whose buildings either collapsed or were partially damaged, there is another problem coming their way.
After the explosion at Soba Town, the Federal Housing Authority (FHA) said the people acquired the land illegally.
The acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, FHA, Umaru Buntu, said the Federal Government acquired the land from the Ojo Military Cantonment to the Lagos International Trade Fair Complex area in 1973 and that it would take the land back.
But a landlord said it was not true. He said Soba people were formally at the Trade Fair area and that government moved them to the current location when Trade Fair was to be built.
To alleviate the suffering of the people, the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, set up a N2bn relief fund for the victims. The Nigerian Governors’ Forum and other corporate bodies had made donations.
Pastor Kehinde said government officials had come to write the victims’ names three times. He is not convinced that anything positive would come out of it. Typical of the distrust of government officials by most Nigerians, many Soba residents do not believe that the relief fund would be disbursed to them.
“I believe the government, but I don’t believe in the people working for them. Because they might tamper with the money. Some people may deduct some amount before it eventually gets to us,” He opined.
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