The Lagos armoury explosion was the accidental detonation of a large stock of high explosives at a military storage facility in the city of Lagos, Nigeria, on 27 January 2002. The fires created by the debris from this explosion burnt down a large section of Northern Lagos, and created a panic that spread to other areas. As people fled the flames, many stumbled into a concealed canal and drowned. The explosion and its aftermath are believed to have killed at least 1,100 people and displaced over 20,000, with many thousands injured or homeless. The government of Nigeria launched an enquiry, which blamed the Nigerian Army for failing to properly maintain the base, or to decommission it when instructed to do so in 2001.
Ikeja Cantonment was a large Nigerian Army living and storage area in the city of Lagos, situated north of the city centre near the districts of Isolo and Onigbongo.[1] In January 2002, the base was being used to store a large quantity of "high calibre bombs", as well as other sundry explosives.[2] On the afternoon of 27 January, a fire broke out in a street market being held next to the base, which was also home to the families of soldiers.[1] At around 18:00 the fire apparently spread to the base's main munitions store, causing an enormous explosion. This blast killed many of the base staff and their families and immediately destroyed several nearby streets, flying debris starting numerous fires further afield. Tremors from the explosion also collapsed many buildings in the area,[3] trapping people in the ruins and starting new fires from damaged cooking appliances. These tremors were so powerful that windows shattered 15km (9.3mi) away and the blast could be felt more than 50km (31mi) inland.
Also thrown up by the blast were thousands of as yet unexploded military munitions, which fell in a rain of exploding shells, grenades and bullets casting further destruction across most of the northern section of the city. Thousands of people from Ikeja and neighbouring districts, seeing explosions and fires breaking out, fled their houses in an attempt to leave the affected areas.[4] As the streets became more and more crowded, explosions amid the fleeing crowds from shells falling from the initial explosion created panic. A stampede developed as panicking people fled in all directions, trampling those who fell underfoot. Reports also describe people jumping from burning high-rise buildings and being killed in desperate attempts to cross the busy Ikeja dual carriageway.[3]
Effect
In central Lagos there is a large canal, which runs from north to south parallel to the Isolo-Oshodi expressway through the centre of the city. It borders a banana plantation, which many refugees thought might be safe from the falling shells and spreading fires.[5] However, the canal separated the plantation from the city and was covered by water hyacinth and thus invisible in the darkness. As the crowd surged towards the plantation, hundreds of panicking people fell into the water.[1] Those on the bottom were crushed by yet more people falling into the waterway, and in the struggling confusion, at least 600 people were killed, many of them children.[6] Many of these bodies drifted down the canal, some being found as far as ten kilometers from the explosion.
The affected areas of the city burned through most of the night, with explosions continuing to boil out of the wrecked armoury until the afternoon of 28 January. The emergency services were woefully inadequate to deal with the devastation, as there were not enough fire crews or water points available to cope with the fire, which consequently consumed large parts of the city's northern suburbs. City hospitals were also utterly overwhelmed, many injured going for hours without any medical attention even if they did manage to reach an undamaged medical facility.[1] The military, too, having suffered the loss of many of its Lagos-based personnel in the initial explosion, was not in a position to assume control of the city and did not appear in large numbers until late on 28 January.
By the evening of 28 January, most of the fires were under control and people began returning to the city and attempting to find loved ones lost in the stampede.[5] Many of the dead were children, separated from their families in the confusion and subsequently crushed in the crowds that filled the streets and canal.[6] On top of the dead from the canal, several hundred people had died in the city itself: killed by falling munitions, trampled by the crowds, or trapped in the fires.
On Tuesday the 29th, High School students from Bolade Grammar School, Oshodi High School, Oshodi Comprehensive High School and Ikeja Grammar School – which were in close proximity to the Ikeja Cantonment – reported how their classroom ceilings and windows were utterly shattered by the explosion.
Aftermath
Remembrance Arcade for the 2002 Ikeja Bomb Blast Victims
The final death toll is hard to compute, although the Red Cross claims that at least 1,000 bodies were recovered and a number of people were reported missing and never found.[7][8] In addition to the dead, at least 5,000 people were injured in the disaster and over 12,000 left homeless, with entire districts of the city gutted. About 20,000 people had fled the city on the night of the explosion, and the survivors gradually returned over the course of the next week.[5]
The Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo arrived in Ikeja on 28 January along with most senior city and national politicians, and he publicly demanded answers from the military as to why such a huge ammunition dump was kept in such a poorly maintained and public location.[1] It later emerged that a small explosion had occurred at the base the previous year, following which the army was advised by city officials to remove or modernise the armoury, but took no action.[9] On the evening of 28 January, George Emdin, the commander of the Ikeja base who had not been present during the explosion, issued a statement:
"On behalf of the military, we are sorry, this is an old ammunition depot with high-calibre bombs ... some efforts were being made in the recent past to try to improve the storage facility, but this accident happened before the high authorities could do what was needed"[9]
This statement provoked fury from the people of Lagos, who claimed that the military was making excuses for their mistakes and that nothing would be done to improve safety at other neglected ammunition dumps, many of which have not been properly maintained since Nigeria gained democracy in 1999 following twenty years of military rule.[9] There were widespread fears in the immediate aftermath of the explosion that it signified the beginning of a military coup, although the government later released a statement ruling out this possibility.[10]
Numerous relief agencies, including the Red Cross and Red Crescent, provided aid to the thousands of homeless and lost people in the weeks following the disaster, attempting to reunite at least 2,000 separated or displaced families.[5] People whose homes had survived were evacuated from Ikeja in order that military explosives experts could remove large quantities of unexploded munitions from the area. The evacuees and refugees were housed in temporary accommodation at the Ikeja Police College and the Abalti Barracks Yaba.[5] The recovery process in Ikeja took some years as the rebuilding program was both lengthy and expensive, with many people suffering homelessness and poverty in this period due to the loss of their houses and livelihoods in the fire.
Lagos, or Lagos City, is a large metropolitan city in southwestern Nigeria. With an upper population estimate of 21 million, it is the largest city in Nigeria, and the most populous urban area on the African continent. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until the government's December 1991 decision to move their capital to Abuja in the centre of the country. Lagos is a major African financial centre and is the economic hub of Lagos State and Nigeria at large. The city has a significant influence on commerce, entertainment, technology, education, politics, tourism, art, and fashion in Africa. Lagos is also among the top ten of the world's fastest-growing cities and urban areas. In 2024, Time Out magazine ranked Lagos as the 19th Best City to visit in the World. A megacity, it has the fourth-highest GDP in Africa, and houses one of the largest and busiest seaports on the continent. Due to the large urban population and port traffic volumes, Lagos is classified as a Medium-Port Megacity.
Ikeja is the capital city of Lagos State in southwestern Nigeria. Its population, as of the 2006 census, is 313,196. Prior to the emergence of military rule in the early 1980s, Ikeja was a well planned, clean and quiet residential and commercial town with shopping malls, pharmacies and government reservation areas. It lies 10.5 miles (17 km) northwest of Lagos city. The Murtala Muhammed International Airport is located in the city. Ikeja is also home to Femi Kuti's Africa Shrine and Lagbaja's Motherland, both venues for live music. Its Ikeja City Mall is the largest shopping mall on the Lagos State mainland. Ikeja also has its own radio station, broadcasting both in English and in Yoruba.
Lagos State is a state in southwestern Nigeria. Of the 36 Nigerian states, it is the second most populous state but the smallest in area. Bounded to the south by the Bight of Benin and to the west by the international border with Benin for 10 km, Lagos State borders Ogun State to the north for about 283 km, making it the only Nigerian state to border only one other state. Named for the city of Lagos—the most populous city in Africa—the state was formed from the Western Region and the former Federal Capital Territory on 27 May 1967.
Murtala Muhammed International Airport (MMIA) is an international airport located in Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria, and is the major airport serving the entire state. The airport was initially built during World War II and is named after Murtala Muhammed (1938–1976), the fourth military ruler of Nigeria.
Mushin is a Local Government Area in Lagos Nigeria. It is located 10 km north of the city core, adjacent to the main road to Ikeja, and is largely a congested residential area with inadequate sanitation and low-quality housing. It had 633,009 inhabitants at the 2006 Census. It is also where a lot of A-list talents have risen from, artists such as Wande Coal
Third Mainland Bridge is the longest of three bridges connecting Lagos Island to the mainland, the others are the Eko and Carter bridges. It was the longest bridge in Africa until 1996 when the 6th October Bridge located in Cairo was completed. The bridge starts from Oworonshoki which is linked to the Apapa-Oshodi expressway and Lagos-Ibadan expressway, and ends at the Adeniji Adele Interchange on Lagos Island. There is also a link midway through the bridge that leads to Herbert Macaulay Way, Yaba. The bridge was built by Julius Berger Nigeria PLC. The phase one of the project was commissioned by President Shehu Shagari in 1980 and completed by President Ibrahim Babangida in 1990; it measures about 11.8 km in length.
There have been many extremely large explosions, accidental and intentional, caused by modern high explosives, boiling liquid expanding vapour explosions (BLEVEs), older explosives such as gunpowder, volatile petroleum-based fuels such as gasoline, and other chemical reactions. This list contains the largest known examples, sorted by date. An unambiguous ranking in order of severity is not possible; a 1994 study by historian Jay White of 130 large explosions suggested that they need to be ranked by an overall effect of power, quantity, radius, loss of life and property destruction, but concluded that such rankings are difficult to assess.
The T. A. Gillespie Company Shell Loading Plant explosion, sometimes called the Morgan Munitions Depot explosion or similar titles, began at 7:36 pm EDT on Friday, October 4, 1918, at a World War I ammunition plant in the Morgan area of Sayreville in Middlesex County, New Jersey, United States. The initial explosion, generally believed to be accidental, triggered a fire and subsequent series of explosions that continued for three days, totaling approximately six kilotons, killing about 100 people and injuring hundreds more. The facility, one of the largest in the world at the time, was destroyed along with more than 300 surrounding buildings, forcing the evacuation and reconstruction of Sayreville, South Amboy, and Laurence Harbor. Over a century later, explosive debris continues to surface regularly across a 1.2-mile (1.9 km) radius.
On 15 May 2008 a pipeline explosion occurred in the community of Ijegun, a suburb north of Lagos, Nigeria. The explosion took place after a bulldozer struck an oil pipeline. The Lagos police have stated that the explosion appears to be an accident, and not the work of thieves, as in past pipeline explosions near Lagos. Construction workers accidentally broke an underground pipeline from which fuel started to spill out; moments later an explosion occurred.
The 2008 Chelopechene explosions were a series of explosions that began early on Thursday morning 3 July 2008 at around 6:30 am local time at a munitions depot in the suburb of Chelopechene, 10 kilometres east of the centre of the Bulgarian capital, Sofia. The initial explosions were powerful enough to be heard in the entire capital and surrounding villages. The depot was part of a military facility that specialised in dismantling obsolete ammunition.
On October 18, 1998, a pipeline explosion occurred in the community of Jesse, 290 kilometres (180 mi) southeast of Lagos, Nigeria. The cause of the blast has been debated. The Nigerian government stated the explosion took place after scavengers intentionally ruptured the pipeline with their tools and ignited the blaze; however, others have stated the pipeline ruptured due to a lack of maintenance and neglect with a cigarette igniting the fire. With 1,082 deaths attributed to the blast, the 1998 Jesse explosion has the distinction of being the most deadly pipeline explosion to have occurred in Nigeria.
On 4 March 2012, a series of blasts occurred at an army arms dump in Brazzaville, the capital of the Republic of the Congo. At least 300 people were killed by the explosions. Additional bodies were said to be "unfindable." Among the dead were six Chinese workers from a Beijing Construction Engineering Group work site close to the armoury. Interior Minister Raymond Mboulou said that nearby hospitals were overflowing with injuries, with many wounded lying in hallways due to lack of space. Total injuries exceeded 2,500. More than 121,000 people were left homeless and 672 million dollars in damages were done. One survivor described the event as feeling like "the apocalypse;" others described it as "like a tsunami" or "earthquake".
The following lists events that happened during 2012 in Nigeria.
Transport in Lagos currently consists of four modes: road, water, rail and air.
Ikeja Bus Terminal is located at Ikeja, the capital city of Lagos State. The bus terminal is located on the road to the local airport behind the present railway line in the city, and adjacent the state teaching hospital, ikeja general post office, all in the Computer Village neighbourhood.
Ikeja Cantonment is a large Nigerian Armed Forces installation in the northern part of Lagos. It is situated north of the city centre near the districts of Isolo and Onigbongo.
During the afternoon of 7 March 2021, a series of four explosions occurred at a military barracks in the neighborhood of Nkoantoma, a district of Bata, Equatorial Guinea. At least 107 people died, and more than 600 others were injured, while significant infrastructural damage also occurred throughout the city.
Oshodi Transport Interchange is located in the Oshodi area of Lagos State, Nigeria. The bus terminal is located between the Lagos-Apapa Expressway and the Agege Motor Road. The Oshodi Bus Terminal is divided into three different terminals called: Terminal 1, Terminal 2, and Terminal 3.
Oyingbo Bus Terminal is located in Oyingbo Rd, Lagos Mainland, Lagos State, Nigeria. The Terminus is built at the centre of Oyingbo area and it shares boundaries with Yaba, Iddo and Ijora/Costain axis. Oyingbo Bus Terminal is the sister terminal to both the Oshodi and Ikeja Bus Terminals. The buses are fully air-conditioned and very convenient. The bus terminal is located at the heart of the busy Oyingbo market. Ease of accessing the island and other Mainland areas of Lagos by Bus is an advantage of the location of this bus terminal.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
