The President of Bodija Estate Residents Association {BERA}, Pastor Muyiwa Bamgbose, has said most victims of the January 16 blast in Bodija, Ibadan, are in a limbo.
Bamgbose, who spoke in Ibadan, said though the Oyo State Government was trying, more still needed to be done.
The president lamented that most of the victims don’t know the next line of action.
He therefore called on the state government to disclose the next line of action for the resident-victims.
Bamgbose said: ‘’The latest is that people are wondering what is the next line of action. People are tired of staying in hotels. Many are still in hotels. They don’t even know whether they are going to rent a house, because building a house does not happen overnight. It takes quite a while to even build a house. People are in a limbo. Our appeal is that let us make a decision on what we want to do with these people. Let them know their lot, their fate and where they are going.
‘’I spoke with an 85-year-old professor who was telling me that he built his house in 1976. He retired into the place. Now the place is gone. What does he do? Where does he start from? Definitely he does not have the strength to begin to build another house again at 85. How long will it take to build the house? How long will he live?
“This is the problem and we are concerned for them. We feel their pains and woes. We are just appealing to the government to speak out. Let them know where we are going. These are people of substance who have served this nation. The nation has a degree of responsibility to them and others to ensure that they have dignity and a good means of existence.
‘’Our appeal to the government is to speak out and let us know the next line of action. Government has done enough, especially the Oyo State Government. The Governor has done so much. In other climes, what they would havedone was to put a shed somewhere and ask people to live under the canopy. But the state government gave people hotel accommodation, food and other things. We appreciate them for that.
‘’We also know that people are contributing by sending resources. We appreciate the government. But we are saying they can still do more. What happened was not the fault of these people who had been living peacefully in their houses.
‘’They are waiting for the next line of action despite the efforts of the government, because some of them are still in hotels. If a man knows where he is going, he is half-way the destination. For a man to live in limbo is a great problem, especially for people who have been in control of their lives before now. People who decide when they want to eat, take their bathe, go out and do other things are now living like dependent persons’’.
