Colleagues Mourn Bombed Sand Dealer

Colleagues of the late Oladele Pius, who died Monday as a result of an explosion at Festac area of Lagos, have continued to mourn the deceased, who was Chairman of Sand Dredgers Association in the Amuwo-Odofin area, Lagos, Southwest Nigeria.

The explosion occurred under the FESTAC/Mile 2 Link Bridge. A police inspector, Akin Sunday, was also seriously injured. Some of his colleagues while extolling his virtues said they are yet to come to terms with the reality that he is no more.

Peter Adeola, while commenting on the demise of Pius, said there is nobody that came across the late Ondo State-born businessman that had any cause to say negative things about him because he was generous to a fault.

Tayo Popoola, while speaking of the deceased nicknamed “Apase”, said it was really a painful exit because he had listening ears and was always ready to help. Oladele Pius “Apase died a painful death, those who carried out this act don’t know the implication of what they had done because he was a philanthropist,” Popoola said.

Another colleague of the deceased, who was very close to him cried uncontrollably.
He said: “it is possible that the late Pius was assassinated. They have killed him now, and I know those that killed him did so because he does not like people to be cheated, maybe he had running battles with some people and they decided to take his life.”

Sheu Adamu said words are not enough to describe his late boss. “I had nothing when I came to Lagos from Adamawa State. It was this man that housed and fed me. It was under this bridge that I saved money to rent an apartment and achieved other things in life. It is really a sad day for a number of us you see here today (Monday) because he was accommodating till he died.”
Meanwhile, Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Umar Manko,  who was at the explosion scene a few hours later, tried to play down the incident.

“The experts in that are already there. The impression there is not what all of you might be thinking, it is so minor. It is not the type that everybody is thinking about,” Mr. Manko said. “It is not the type of explosion that Nigerians are used to of recent. Just somebody trying to play games here and thereby using common battery put in a torchlight, that’s what we found there,” he added