LASG, Ejigbo LCDA may partner on Oke-Afa cemetery
By Abolaji Adebayo
Better prospects await the seemingly abandoned resting place of the victims of January 27, 2002 bomb blast on Peter Agah Street as the Lagos State Government and the Ejigbo Local Government are ready to make it a tourist attraction.
In separate interviews with the Echonews crew, the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Tourism, Art & Culture, Mr. Babatunde Mesewaku and the Chairman of Ejigbo LCDA expressed willingness to revive the project as a tourism asset.
A path to such a collaboration was described by Mesewaku who proposed that the council invite the state government to take over the project.
Mesewaku was the former council manager of Ejigbo LCDA from 2007 to 2013, in his view, Ejigbo LCDA chairman said the state actually took it over in 2012 by upgrading the facility to its present state and declared that the annual memorial should cease.
Determined to reduce the negative image that the annual commemoration of the January 27 incident posed to public psyche, Governor Raji Fashola in 2012 embarked on comprehensive organisation of the final marking of the event.
These included payment of compensation for the affected families after due diligence and the divers.
The arrangements were handled by the Ministry of Works then administered by the current Deputy Governor of Lagos State, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat who was then the Honourable Commissioner for Works & Infrastructures.
The Ministry invited the local government under the chairmanship of Kehinde Bamigbetan to make inputs.
The proposal of the local government included the installation of solar light to reduce the cost of providing light, the production of audio-visual aids that tourists could watch to relive the event and provision of water.
On its part, the council produced a book chronicling the event based on newspaper research and interviews with those involved.
Following the commissioning of the upgraded site, the council also assigned a staff of the environmental department to maintain the ambience.
Part of the understanding was that it would be listed by the state government as a prime tourist destination, a policy that is within the mandate of the Ministry of Tourism, Arts & Culture.
Concern over the state of the facility followed the gradual malfunctioning of the solar panels after seven years of installation.
When it was newly installed, the solar facility brightened the environment as early as 7pm reaching as far as the Isolo-Ikotun Road at night. By 5am the next morning, the light dimmed and switched off.
On January 27, 2002, explosions at a military cantonment, Ikeja triggered a stampede of fleeing people during which more than 1,000 people were killed.
The Ikeja armory was located just north of the city center of Lagos and housed a large barracks and munitions depot.
On January 27, a Sunday afternoon, a street market was set up at Ikeja when fire broke out. It spread to a munitions area and, at about 6 p.m., caused a huge explosion.
The blast immediately leveled an area of several square blocks and killed approximately 300 people, mostly soldiers and their families.
The explosion was heard and felt 30 miles away and the tremors collapsed homes and broke windows as many as 10 miles away. Making matters worse, the explosion sent munitions debris raining down over a wide area of the north side of Lagos. This caused fires to break out all over the city.
The explosions and fires caused a general panic in part of the city. Lagos has a large canal, the Oke-Afa, running north to south through the city.
On the other side of the canal is a banana plantation. Apparently, much of the panicking crowd thought they could seek refuge in the banana fields, but failed to remember the location of the canal in the dark. As thousands of people pushed toward the fields, at least 600 people drowned in the canal.
Stampedes in other parts of the city killed hundreds more, most of them children separated from their parents. Approximately 5,000 people were injured in total, overwhelming the city’s hospitals.
Explosions continued throughout the night and into the following afternoon. Due to a lack of firefighters in Lagos, the blazes were not contained until more than 24 hours later. At least 12,000 people were left homeless by the disaster.
Afterward, the commander of Ikeja military cantonment issued a statement which read: “On behalf of the military, we are sorry, efforts were being made in the recent past to try to improve the storage facility, but this accident happened before the high authorities could do what was needed.”
In fact, it turned out that city officials had told the military to modernise the facility the year before following a small explosion but that virtually nothing had been done.
During the 10th commemoration at the Oke-Afa Memorial Cemetery in 2012, the then Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola unveiled a befitting Memorial Wall with the appellation “Oke Afa Memorial Arcade” built in honour of the victims of 2002 Ikeja Bomb Blast who were buried beside the canal along Isolo-Ejigbo road and presentation of cheques of N250,000 each to 70 families of the victims.
Speaking at the remembrance programme, former governor Babatunde Fashola (SAN) stated that part of the steps already taken by his administration included the commencement of construction on the new Ajao–Ejigbo Bridge to pass over the Oke-Afa Canal and Ejigbo end of the canal which would open up water transportation from the axis to the central Business District of Lagos Island and Festac Village and its environs respectively.
