By IPS Correspondents
By Toye OloriLAGOS, Jan 29 2003 (IPS)

This week Nigeria remembers the victims of the bomb blasts in which more than 1,000 persons lost their lives at the Ikeja Military Cantonment in Lagos on Jan 27, 2002.

Most of the victims drowned in the Oke-Afa canal while running away from the fiery fire that followed each explosion. Their bodies were recovered the following day, while several others were trapped beneath the murky waters of the disused canal. 112 unclaimed bodies were buried at the banks of the canal.

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and religious bodies have launched a series of activities, which started at the weekend with remembrance services in mosques and churches where prayers were said for the repose of the souls of the victims. The activities reached a climax Monday with an inter-denomination service at Oke-Afa canal, where those who perished during the tragedy were buried en masse.

Hundreds of residents, who thronged the canal to lay wreaths in remembrance of the victims, could not hold back tears as they recounted the ugly incident, which claimed their loved ones, including wives, husbands and children.

To minimise similar tragedy in the future, an NGO, known as the National Women Peace Group (NAWOPEG), has launched an emergency squad at Oke-Afa suburb, to complement government efforts.

Olasubomi Iginla, spokesperson of the group, says some deaths recorded at the canal could have been avoided if the incident had been properly handled.

The squad will enlighten the public on what to do in cases of emergency. Under the initiative, the public would be trained on how to handle all forms of emergency, especially on medical issues and motor accidents so that the rescuers do not endanger the lives of victims, as well as theirs.

”Many had lost their lives because rescuers were unaware of how to treat cases immediately,” she says.

At the wreath-laying ceremony on Monday, Bola Tinubu, Governor of Lagos State, called on the government to make the Ikeja loss the last of avoidable hazards by ensuring that the safety of all military hardware was no longer treated with levity.

Tinubu warned that ”the havoc wreaked by the bomb blasts at the cantonment could still be repeated if safety was not built into the scheme of things”.

Following the explosions, the government announced that the ammunition dump at the cantonment would be relocated elsewhere.

”Though the ammunition dump was sited at the cantonment – at a time, the place was very far from the town. Now that civilians have closed in on the location, it has become inappropriate to dump so much heavy weapons there,” says Theophilus Danjuma, the minister of defence.

Most structures and roofs of buildings blown off or destroyed during the bomb blast have remained unattended a year after the disaster.

Students of two secondary schools, within the cantonment, which were destroyed in the explosions, attend lectures in neighbouring schools.

Most of the residents complain of neglect by government, which they claim has not done enough to compensate the victims and survivors.

Last week, survivors of the blast, who were being sheltered at the Police College, Ikeja, a suburb of Lagos, were evicted from what had become their only known abode.

Teju Phillips, Lagos State Commissioner for Special Duties, told journalists that it would be wrong for the displaced still living in the makeshift home to think that they would remain in the camp forever.

She said the temporary camps have been wound up after compensations have been paid, and that the state government was working on the reconstruction and rehabilitation of the affected schools.

Henry Ajomale, Special Adviser on Political Matters to the Lagos State governor, blames the federal government for the lapses. ”The state government did its best for the displaced persons. The state governor extended helping hands to the survivors by creating the camp. Efforts to assist the survivors were frustrated by the (federal) authorities”.

”The Federal Government was supposed to have taken over the issue since it was the military that caused the incident,” he charges.

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