- Announces N2b Relief Fund For Victims
- Set up Fact Finding Committee
- To Meet President Over Incident
The Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu has described the Abule Ado fire explosion catastrophic and the scene like a war zone.
More than 15 people have been confirmed dead, over 100 injured and over 50 houses were destroyed.
The stunned governor said, “I have not seen anything of this magnitude before…It is catastrophic. It is like a war zone”.
Sanwo-Olu who was at the site of the incident this morning, alongside the deputy governor, Obafemi Hamzat, and other Lagos State officials also announced a N2 billion relief fund to help victims of the explosion.
He also named an 18-.man fact-finding committee to ascertain the cause of the explosion and determine what should be done to avert future occurrence.
The governor who came to the explosion area about an hour after the arrival of his deputy went round the scene to see for himself the extent of damage and the site of the explosion.
He said his mission was not to determine what caused the explosion but to assess the extent of the damage, pay condolence to victims and express gratitude to the first respondents who worked in the day and overnight to rescue victims, evacuate the dead and take the injured to the hospital.
“I am not here to apportion blame, nor explain in graphic details of what happened here, others will do that”, he said.
The fact finding committee which is headed by the deputy governor has commissioners of special duty, education, finance, environment and physical planning as members. Other members are Permanent Secretary of of works and infrastructure, special assistance on security, representative of the CDC and CDA, a representative of NNPC, NEMA, two representatives of the community and representative of the Bethlehem Girls College whose principal died in the fire.
The committee has two weeks to submit its report. The extent of their investigation according to the governor include ascertaining the cause of the explosion, what needs to be done so that what happened would not happen again. It would also ascertain the extent of damage and carry out an audit of damages.
The N2billion relief fund which would be used to pay medical bills of victims, and also help those who are in need would be managed by the deputy governor.
He said the Lagos State governor would immediately commit N250 million to the fund by tomorrow, while he is looking forward to assistance to come from private citizens, corporate Nigeria and his fellow governors, some of whom have called him on the incident.
Sanwo-Olu said three bank accounts have been opened at Polaris Bank with account number 4030017510, Zenith Bank with account number 1017184716, while GTBank has account number 0568615688.
The governor said the work at hand cannot be handled by the state alone and would therefore be going to Abuja to brief the president Muhammadu Buhari and seek federal government assistance.
He said 500 government workers, among them 250 NEMA officials would be moving into the community with their equipment to clean up the place starting from today. They would also pull down buildings that needs to be pulled down and identify those that needs to be ‘developed’.
