Chief Sunday Nwobodo (Akaekpuchionwa of Enugu State) the Chief Executive Officer,
New Planet Resort, Ajangbadi, Lagos needs no introduction. Aside his towering
features and humble mien, his philanthropic and humanitarian gestures to not
only his immediate environment but Nigeria in general, speak volume of his
large heart. No wonder he was among Igbo thought leaders who visited Abu-Lado
Community to commiserate with them over the explosion that claimed numerous
lives and properties worth billions of Naira. SUCCESS DAMIAN was lucky to
corner him for a brief chat. Excerpts:
Tell us your name
My name is Chief Sunday Nwobodo, Akaekpuchionwa 1 of
Enugu State, a businessman and major stakeholder in Igbo affairs in Lagos.
Why are you here today?
I am here in company of Eze Ndigbo because there is
nothing I love than whatever that concerns Ndigbo, I will always be there to be
counted. Eze Ndigbo invited me; that today he is coming to visit Abu-Lado to
console them on the fire disaster that happened here.
Our coming here is to find out exactly what happened
and also see what we can do as a group to help our people who were affected by
the disaster. We have to help our brothers, because we must be our brothers’
keeper when it matters most.
How can you describe what happened here?
Looking at what I am seeing, it is worse than what I
saw on video and social media, anybody that comes here would tell you that what
I am saying is the truth, it is beyond video. You needed to be here to find out
the truth.
Do you think Ndigbo were affected more by this explosion, what are you
telling them?
I sincerely pray that God will come to the help of
Ndigbo to bear this heavy disaster that befell them. If you look at it,
majority of those who are living here are the Igbos, if you look at the nature
of the buildings here, you will notice that Igbo people are in majority here.
You can see these people crying, they are all Ndigbo. I pray that God will help
the Igbos to be able to mobilize and rehabilitate our people.
What do you think the Igbos can do to assist those affected by the
explosion?
That is why the Eze Ndigbo is here and other
stakeholders, that is why I am also here to see thinks for myself. I think what
I feel should be done is to mobilize the Igbo sons and daughters that are well
to do, organizations and town unions to contribute their widows mite, what
happened here is a disaster, the magnitude is beyond description, those who
captured it on social media did not capture one quarter of what happened here,
it is when you come here that you understand the magnitude of destruction by
the explosion.
We have seen the catastrophe that befell our people
and we are going to send out information to various Igbo groups on this, we
also want market associations to come to the aid of our people.
Can you speak on location of buildings close to pipelines and how and
where the Igbos keep their properties?
What I see here is more than explosion, I have not
seen this kind of thing, you can see where the explosion took place and the
distance where its impacts were also felt, that means nowhere is save. With
this kind of thing it does not matter where you stay or keep your asset, you
can see the thing went very far. It remained just a little the entire state
would have been affected. So I don’t really understand where you can say this
place is safe.
Do you have other things to say?
I advise our people to always think home, nothing can
be compared to home, whatever happens, that is my advice to Ndigbo.
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