“CRSG Officials Warned CBN Before Explosion” – Speaker CRSHA

Speaker of the Cross River State House of Asembly, John Gaul Lebo has informed that before the unfortunate explosion in the premises of the Central Bank in Calabar, yesterday Friday, March 11, 2016, the Cross River State Ministry of Environment, had in a memo from the Office of the Commissioner for Environment, written to the bank, raising fears that those in-charge of safety need to do more to address health and safety concerns within the premises of the bank.

Lebo who spoke this morning on “The Public View”, a news and current affairs programme on Calabar’s first private radio station, HIT 95.9 FM, confirmed that the memo specifically drew attention to how gas cylinders were stored in the premises, while renovation of the bank’s office structure was on-going. He further added that it was unfortunate that at the point where the bank was working on responding to the Ministry of Environment’s concern, this accident took place.

“30 minutes after this unfortunate accident happened, the deputy governor (of Cross River State) was at the bank’s premises to assess the level of damage and supervised the speedy evacuation of those injured to the nearby Nigerian Navy hospital”, the Speaker said.

While the media has been awash with stories of a bomb blast in the premises of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Lebo begged the media to verify facts before publishing stories insisting that what happened was not a bomb blast but a gas explosion triggered by no one. He sympathised with those injured and prayed that God will restore them to good health in no time.