Residents link Ibadan explosion to inordinate sale of property to strangers

Some residents of the Old Bodija Estate in Ibadan, affected by Tuesday’s bomb explosion, have linked the incident to the inordinate sales and transfer of property to strangers without security checks.

The residents made the allegation in separate interviews with the newsmen in Ibadan on Wednesday.

They alleged that the quest for money without security considerations among some landlords’ children within the estate had led to the sale of some houses to foreigners who were mainly illegal miners.

One of the residents, Mrs Cecilia Adeleke, said that businesses, mini-companies, hotels, bars and lounges have filtered the estate without coordination from estate management as against what was obtainable in the estate before now.

Adeleke alleged that most new occupants of the transferred properties were foreigners who came to the country to run illegal businesses.

“Some of the landlords have relocated abroad and their children are selling their houses anyhow to strangers.

“The way houses at Bodija estate are sold indiscriminately to foreigners negate what is obtainable when we were growing here as children,” she said.

“During our childhood days, residents were not allowed to sell beer, even food sellers were not allowed to move anyhow but now hotels are erected anyhow in the estate,” she said.

Another resident, Mr Joshua Alabi, a civil servant, called on the Oyo State Government to review the law of acquisition and transfer of properties within the estate.

He urged the state emergency management agency, the Red Cross and other care organisations to urgently provide first aid support to victims as many of them do not have a place to keep their goods.

Meanwhile, a survivor, Mrs Damilola Ologbese, said the explosion occurred as a result of fire from a generator stationed beside a vehicle filled with mining equipment.

Ologbese said that her gateman and dog were seriously injured, adding that she currently found it difficult to secure a convenient apartment to keep her family and belongings.