By Ubong Ukpong, Abuja

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has constituted a committee to review the laws guiding the use of explosives in the country to determine whether they were  being violated by illegal miners whose activities led to Tuesday’s deadly explosion in Ibadan, Oyo State.

The explosion killed two persons and wounded about 80 others.

Minister of Defense, Mohammed Badaru, who made the disclosure while addressing State House Correspondents after FEC chaired by President Bola Tinubu at Council Chambers, Presidential Villa, Abuja.

Badaru said the committee is made up of all the security agencies, the Minister of Environment, Ministry of Solid Minerals.

According to the minister, council expressed concerns about the incident and the need to prevent similar incidents in the future.

Speaking on council’s deliberations, the minister said: “In today’s deliberation, the explosion in Ibadan was raised and the government sympathised with the victims and the very good people of Oyo State.  And currently investigation is ongoing to find out the real cause of the blast and to see how best we can prevent it happening in the future.

“After that, there is the issue of environmental protection as well as mining, areas protection and forest protection were discussed and a committee was set by Mr. President.

“That includes all the security agencies, the Minister of Environment, the Ministry of solid minerals to look into all these issues, and see how we can provide lasting solutions to stop the issues that centre around environmental degradation both in our forests and the mining sites. And also the rampant illegal mining and the control of earthing in the mining sector.”

Reacting to Governor Seye Makinde’s revelation that the explosion was caused by explosives stored by illegal ministers, the minister noted that there was also suspicion in some quarters that it might have been a gas explosion.

He noted that federal agents were now on ground at the scene of the incident to ascertain the cause and ways to prevent future occurrence.

“The first question has to do with the Ibadan explosion where the governor said that preliminary investigation suggested that there are some explosives around the area where it happened that are owned by some illegal miners.

“Well, we have seen that report. There is another report suggesting that it was a gas explosion. So, our team is there trying to find out what is the cause.

“But for the council to be proactive, it has already set up the committee that I told you to look into how the control of explosives law was broken if indeed there are explosives around the area where this incident happened.

“That was why the committee was set up to look at the rules to see where the chain is broken and see how it can be fixed and gather more information if this is happening rampantly around the country.

“You all know that there is a strict rule in the storage, movement and ownership of these explosives and the rule is being monitored. If there is any case of breakdown, we will find out and deal with it”, he said.

Similarly, an Oyo state member of the House of Representatives, Rep Staley Olajide, on Wednesday, demanded that government must take absolute control of access and usage of dynamites, to prevent misuse by illegal persons to the detriment of the public.

Olajide, who represents Ibadan North West/South West of Oyo state in the House of Representatives, was speaking to journalists against the dynamites explosion in Ibadan.

The lawmaker who was saddened by what befell his constituents, said how these dynamites are acquired, stored and used, must be controlled by government.

He regretted that the activities of illegal miners in the state,  caused innocent citizens their lives in the blast.

The House Committee on ICT Chairman, further regretted that the task seems overwhelming to federal security agencies, insisting that state police was the answer to the ongoing killings in the country.

Olajide reiterated the 10th Assembly’s resolve towards the passage of bills on State Policing as part of ongoing efforts aimed at tackling the ravaging insecurity across the country.

 While commiserating with Oyo State government and families of victims of the explosion which occured in Ibadan, on Tuesday night, the lawmaker said, “Community policing is actually one of the very smartest way to police your people. somebody sees something somebody knows something, they need to speak at the right time.

“Failure to do so will cause situation like this. So, we are going to reopen that because remember, we’ve also been talking about State Police, we’ll be talking about Community Police.

“So, I think you know situation like this would actually present an urgency to the matter, so that that way we can get the right support that we need to pass whatever legislation that we need to to pass for this.

“So definitely we’re going to pick this up and it’s going to be in the front burner of the activities of the House as soon as we reconvene as a House.”

Hon. Olajide who applauded the prompt intervention of Governor Seyi Makinde and all the First Responders, noted that efforts were on to nip the situation in the bud.

He said: “We woke up to a very horrific situation in Ibadan which happened around 8pm last night. From information gathered so far coming from the office of the Governor of Oyo State, who I must also commend immensely for his rapid response to the situation.

“The dynamite or explosive detonated, we do understand the loss of lives. I do not want to speculate on the numbers of lives yet, because I don’t have those firm numbers yet. But we do know that there are casualties.

“From the Office of the Governor we also understand that a lot of people are in the hospitals receiving treatment, which the Governor has actually made commitments to make sure that everybody is taken care of to get the first class medical treatment that they deserve and they are going to get.

“Also let me say this very clearly that, I want to commend the First Responders NEMA, the Police, DSS and all the emergency responders that have responded to this urgent call.

“At this point, that area remains a crime scene, which means we have to work with the law enforcement to preserve the integrity of that area. I was going to go there this morning, but I was advised against it because going there we will also be part of the problem because if we go there, while the whole area has been cordoned off. And so to go there right now, we could polarize the area and we don’t want to play politics with the lives of our people.

“We’ll let the first responders and all of the security, medical agencies on rescue missions, we’ll let them go through their work. And then we’ll now go there condone with our people and also offer the relief materials because when you have a situation like this.

“And also let me say this, I have spoken to the Speaker of the House of Representative Rt. Honourable Tajudeen Abass. He also has offered his condolences to the people of Ibadan and Oyo State at large. And he has actually mandated me to also go ahead and do more fact-finding and present that to him at the end of today.

“So that we can figure out what kind of materials is needed for our people, so that we can actually come up with some kind of relief for our people.

“It’s unfortunate, but the information that we got it is that one of these illegal miners actually was in possession of this explosive in a residential area, which eventually cause this disaster. But we will find out more information.”

In a bid to unravel the immediate and remote causes of the ugly incident, Hon. Olajide beckoned on Director General of Department of State Security to conduct thorough investigation into the incident.