Fresh revelations emerge on 2002 bomb blast

Olalekan Olabulo, Lagos - 29.01.2008

Six years after the bomb blast that rocked the Ikeja Nigerian Army cantonment in January 2002 killing hundreds of people, clearer insights have come on the circumstances leading to the incident.

The then commanding officer of the command also blamed the incidenton the carefree attitude on the part of those in authority at the time.

The then commander of the 9th Infant Brigade and the commanding officer of the cantonment where the bombs exploded, Brigadier-General George Emdin (rtd), said the blast was not pre-empted some months before it actully occured.

According to the officer, the different army formations in Lagos State at the time of the blast had informed the Senate Committee on Defence and the Army headquaters of the impending disaster at the Armour Transit Depot, situated within the cantonment.

According to him, the ATD had become not only obsolete, but inundated with unused ammunition from the ECOMOG peacekeeping mission to Liberia and Congo.

He also said the Senate Committee on Defence had on its visit to the cantonment on October 4, 2001, been informed of the impending danger at the ATD

He added that the then Chief of Defence Staff, General Alex Ogomudia, was also aware of the precarious situation of the ATD. He said Ogomudia had, during one of his visits to the ATD, ordered that a tarpaulin be acquired to cover the littering bombs from the sun.

He also said the Senate leadership during the Senator Pius Anyim era had allegedly sent a recommendation to the presidency to include the ATD in the budget of the following year.