The Kogi state government has accused some people it described as misguided politicians as those responsible for the explosion that rocked a community in Okene LGA of the state on Thursday morning.
The incident took place at a mosque near the palace of Ado Ibrahim, the paramount ruler of Ebiraland.
The blast occurred while President Muhammadu Buhari was in the area to inaugurate projects completed by the state government.
Four persons were said to have been killed in the incident while two others sustained injuries.
Kingsley Fanwo, the Kogi commissioner for information, had initially debunked reports of an explosion, saying it was a “mere transformer spark which injured one person”.
The information commissioner would later delete his tweets on the incident.
In the first official acknowledgement of the explosion, Jerry Omodara, security adviser to Yahaya Bello, Kogi governor, said there was prior intelligence of the incident.
He said it was for this reason that “we had enough deployment of security personnel across the state to be able to frustrate their efforts”.
“Unfortunately, in spite of that, the enemies of progress still tried to distract President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to Kogi by setting off that explosion,” NAN quoted him as saying.
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“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 relatives, 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.”
“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,” he said.
“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.