Akure explosion: Driver of truck conveying explosives narrates how it all happened
As mixed reactions continue to trail the explosion that rocked Akure, the Ondo state capital last Saturday, the driver of the truck conveying the dynamites that exploded in the state has shared his side of the story.
The explosion which occurred close to Ilu Abo town, along the Akure-Owo highway, a few kilometers away from the Akure Airport damaged houses and also destroyed the highway, creating a large ditch on the road. While many Nigerians were speculating that the eruption may have been caused by asteroids, geoscience and geophysics professionals are also debating and contradicting one another over the actual cause of the explosion.
During a visit to the scene, Governor Rotimi Akeredolu and the Ondo State Police Command had said an explosion from dynamites being transported to another state caused the eruption.
Their claims were countered by a professor of geophysics and earthquake engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Adepelumi Adekunle, who said his research team found out that the eruption was an impact from meteors.
“The field evidence point to a conclusion that a meteoric from an asteroid belt that travels at a great speed from space impacted the location at an angle of 43 degrees created an ejecta at South-Western part,” Adekunle said in his report.
President of the Nigerian Mining and Geosciences Society (NMGS), Obadiah Nkom, also faulted Adekunle’s findings and said the blast was caused by explosives and not a natural phenomenon.
However, Isiaka Yinusa, driver of the truck told the Ondo state-owned television station OSRC, that the explosion was from his truck which developed a fault in Akure on their way to Auchi in Edo State, and they decided to pass the night there with the police officers assigned to escort the consignment.
“About some minutes to midnight, I was sleeping in my vehicle when one of the police escorts came to inform me of smoke under the vehicle.
“The police who led the escort team advised that we move out of town to a less populated area to check what was wrong. On our way, fire started coming out of the vehicle, then we parked, other motorists also parked to assist us put off the fire. When efforts to put out the fire failed, the police told us to leave the scene and run for our lives. We all fled and I just knew something hit me while I was fleeing the scene, that was the last I know.”
