December 30, (THEWILL) – The Kogi State Government has confirmed Thursday’s explosion close to the old palace of the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland, in Okene Local Government Area of the State.
THEWILL had reported that three persons were killed and two others injured in an explosion that rocked the state on Thursday.
Kogi Commissioner for Information, Kingsley Fanwo, had on Thursday, said the blast was from an “overloaded transformer”.
But, a statement by Jerry Omodara, Security Adviser to the State Governor, confirmed the incident as an attack masterminded by “misguided politicians”, whom he described as “enemies of progress”.
He said the Kogi government received intelligence before the explosion.
Omodara said the intelligence “explains why we (Kogi government) had enough deployment of security personnel across the state to be able to frustrate their (enemies) efforts”
“Unfortunately, in spite of that, the enemies of progress still tried to distract President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Kogi by setting that explosion.
“All the same, the deployment and tight security around didn’t allow them to achieve their aim.
“This Government can authoritatively say that the cause of the blast was solely the act of misguided politicians and people, who don’t want anything good for their state.
“We are aware of some disgruntled politicians celebrating the sad incident that happened today in Okene, where some innocent people lost their lives.
“As a government, we believe that issues of security must concern everyone, and until we all put our hands on deck, it will affect us in one way or the other.
“The people who died today are some persons’ children, brothers, or relations, so it must concern all of us.
“But, for some politicians to celebrate the blast is very unfortunate and not the kind of politics that can move us forward in this state and the nation as a whole,” he said.
The SA expressed gladness that the effort of the planners was frustrated and “the visit of our president, Muhammadu Buhari, was very successful as he commissioned several milestone legacy projects of Gov Bello that had a direct bearing on the lives of the people of the state.”
According to him, the enemies of the state will continue to fail in their antics to “ensure that this government doesn’t succeed in moving Kogi forward”.
“Let it be a sound of warning to the disgruntled politicians that Kogi will continue to be on top in the area of security in this country as far as Bello’s administration is concerned.
“His (Bello) interest is to have peace in Kogi and nothing can distract him from that. We are suspecting the man that perished in the car as the one who brought the bomb or explosive to disrupt the programme for today.
“Already, samples have been taken of both human and vehicle parts, and the police and other security agencies investigating the incident will determine what exactly happened.
“The police and other security agencies will definitely come up with their reports for the public to know.
“We are not resting on our oars until the culprits are caught and brought to book.
“As a government, we sympathize and condole those families that lost their loved ones to the explosion of today, Thursday,” he added.
