The Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr Dele Alake, on Monday said the forensic report on the Ibadan explosion sites will determine next line of action by the Federal government
Alake who was on inspection tour of the explosion site at Dej0 Oyelese Street, Bodija Ibadan also visited University College Hospital to check the victims and later hold a meeting with the state Governor Engineer Seyi Makinde
The Minister maintained that it is important to gather all relevant facts and evidence before drawing any conclusions added that it will be presumptuous for the Federal government to take any step now and any step taking without the forensic report could be misleading.
“The ongoing comprehensive forensic investigation process should be allowed to conclude to uncover the root causes of the explosion and address any lapses in safety measures to prevent such incidents in the future.
He assured that the federal government would not leave any stone unturned to ensure that perpetrators of the devastating explosion are brought to justice while equally assuring victims of government support.
“The federal government is awaiting the final report of forensic investigations that is still going on. It will be presumptuous and precipitate for the federal government to make any solid or categorical pronouncement until we have examined all the forensic analysis reports, all the investigations from all the security agencies.
“The mines inspectorate division of the ministry of solid minerals and the intelligence arms of various security agencies are all working round the clock to ensure that there is an authentic and verifiable forensic report to the federal government.
“Then the federal government will be on a solid platform to make an informed judgement and a categorical statement, anything before then would be presumptuous, precipitate, and could be misleading at the end of the day, we don’t operate like that.” Alake said
“The President is very impressed and we are all impressed too. Nobody wishes for any disaster but we wish that our people would respond commendably to any situation at all. And, on our own part, we immediately swung into action.
“We will allow the investigating agencies, various agencies including technical and intelligence agencies to conclude their forensic investigations before we make any categorical and viable statement on the issue.
“All the corollary issues attending this would be answered at the end of the investigations and everybody will be kept well-informed. But my role here is to come and commiserate with the governor and commend the effective efforts he has put in place immediately after the unfortunate incident.”
