The Oyo state government through Ministry of Works and Transport has admonished a radio station in Ibadan, Fresh FM, to stop misleading the public.
This is contained in a reaction made available to www.insideoyo.com on Friday on the comments by commentators of the radio station about the Thursday’s fire accident in Ibadan, the state capital.
Read the full statement below:
The attention of the Ministry of Works and Transport has been drawn to the lies peddled by the commentators in the Freshly Pressed programme on Fresh FM of Friday, 19th April, 2019 on the inferno at Ile Marun Iwo road Ibadan.
The commentators, who were not on ground until the fire was completely put off and who did not know the efforts of the State Fire Service at putting off the inferno heaped the blame of the incident on the State Fire Service claiming that the State Fire Service said there was no water and chemical resulting into a conflagration.
The moderator and analysts even went as far as castigating the person of the Governor of Oyo State for not indicting the Fire Service.
The questions are; with what did the State Fire Service put out the fire if there was no water and chemical? Did any of the analysts and pressmen confront the State Fire Service with the information before coming to damning conclusions and rushing to press?. The truth is that as soon as the information got to us about a tanker’s explosion at ile Marun, Iwo road, the officers from Gbagi Fire Station were deployed to the scene because of the closeness to the place. They were to be complemented by officers from the State Fire Headquarters. The two Fire Stations went to the scene with 52,500 litres of water with which the effect of the inferno was mitigated.
On getting to the scene, the State Fire Service rolled out some rules of protection which some of the victims found too difficult to comply with but instead took to their own initiatives which eventually were counter productive.
People around were so uncontrollable, seeing it as an opportunity for cheap benefits provided by the tanker which was fully loaded. Against the advice of the Firemen on ground, the driver of the Micra drove across the petrol spillage. The issue of lack or inadequate chemical and water did not feature in the exercise.
The Ministry while sympathising with the victims of the incident, wishes to implore the entire citizenry of the state to be security conscious; make timely calls to the State Fire Service through any of its hot lines, 08067439223
08054353501, always on display on BCOS screen and desist from propagating lies.
The Ministry equally wishes to implore the pressmen and analysts to cross check their facts before rushing to the press. (See today’s The Nation Newspaper’s accurate report)Misleading the public and propagating falsehood would not improve society. Finally as agenda setters, it is imperative that we engage in constructive criticism all the time and be accurate with reports and analysis.
