The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has constituted 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 the Tuesday deadly explosion in Ibadan, Oyo State.
The Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar, disclosed this on Wednesday while addressing State House reporters after the first federal cabinet meeting of 2024 presided over by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Badaru said the council expressed worries about the incident and noted the need to avert future occurrences.
He added that despite preliminary investigations suggesting that explosives stored by illegal miners might have been the cause, there was also suspicion in some quarters that it was due to gas.
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He said 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.
