The Federal Executive Council (FEC), on Wednesday, January 17, set up a committee to review the laws guiding the control of explosives in the country to determine whether they were violated by illegal miners whose activities led to Tuesday’s deadly explosion in Ibadan.
Minister of Defense, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, who disclosed this while addressing journalists after the first FEC of 2024, presided over by President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, also warned the public against crowdfunding to pay ransoms for kidnapped victims, saying it will only worsen the spate of abductions.
According to Badaru, the council expressed worries about the incident and noted the need to avert future occurrences, noting that despite preliminary investigations suggesting that explosives stored by illegal miners may have been the cause, there was also suspicion in some quarters that gas may have been to blame.
He noted that federal agents were now on the ground at the scene of the incident to ascertain the cause and ways to prevent future occurrences.
“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 are 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 strict rule in the storage, movement and ownership of these explosives and the rules is being monitored. If there is any case of breakdown, we will find out and deal with it.”, he said.