UPDATE: Sanwo-Olu briefs Buhari on extent of Lagos explosion

Governor Babajide Sanyo-Olu on Monday briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on the weekend pipeline explosion in Abule Ado that killed many people.

He told State House correspondents after the meeting that he showed the president the extent of the Lagos explosion, noting that Buhari showed concern and sympathised with the victims.

The governor appealed to Nigerians not speculate on the cause of the Lagos explosion, saying that he had set up a committee to unravel it.

He said his government would do all that was necessary to avoid a repeat of the deadly incident.

Sanwo-Olu said: “I had a very rear opportunity to brief Mr President about the very unfortunate gas/pipeline explosion in Lagos State yesterday.

“Mr President was very gracious to receive me and to ask me about where we are and what had happened. I was able to show him pictorially the extent and the level of destruction of what happened yesterday (Sunday).

“It is a very unfortunate incident, is not something that anyone could have imagined, you needed to be there to see the level of destruction.”

Sanwo-Olu said it was too early to speculate on the cause of the incident especially suggestions that the community was too close to the pipeline.

He said: “That is being speculative and that is what the committee set up will find out. The experts are doing it and they will give us the full report in less than two weeks. There is a pipeline right of way and it was not the state government that gave that, it has been in existence since.

“So, the issues around the fact that there were commercial gas cylinders around the vicinity are all still very speculative. The experts will be able to tell as what led to this incident and the lessons we all need to take away from it.”

Sanwo-Olu, who said President Buhari was looking forward to the committee report, observed that Lagos has never witnessed that level of destruction.

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According to him, part of the remedy would be to build more roads that will bypass the pipeline right of way.

He added: “We will be fair but we will also be firm. What is popular might not be what is right but we will do the right thing. That is what I can assure you.”

Speaking on controlling building and development, Sanwo-Olu said in less than a year, over 20 buildings have been demolished, adding: “We have also marked for demolition quite a number.

“I will be the first to admit that given the size of the city, maybe we don’t have enough development control to manage the growth of the city. It is the same way we cannot control the population explosion in the country. We cannot put a border post in the city and say people cannot come in, but we have been a bit proactive to ensure our building control process is a lot more transparent and quick.

“We will have them online so that people will not have to come to the government. But we will continue to appeal to our people to do the right thing. You cannot just come in and begin to build just because someone has given you an allocation. That is why I said our decision is not going to be popular but we are going to be firm in the sense that you are still going to see a lot of sanctions going forward.”

 

NIGERIAN TRIBUNE