Bodija Explosion: We Have Spent the Money – Makinde Opens Up on ₦30bn Fund, Reveals New Use
Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, has disclosed that his administration has spent the ₦30 billion received from the Federal Government as intervention support following the January 2024 Bodija explosion, months after the state government maintained that the money remained untouched in a dedicated bank account.
Makinde made the disclosure during an interview with Arise Television, where he explained that the government engaged the Nigerian Society of Engineers and professional valuers to assess properties affected by the explosion before paying compensation to their owners.
“We’ve spent the money. We got the Nigerian Society of Engineers, we got valuers, you know, they went out there, had the valuation of the properties, and then we gave money back to those people,” the governor said.
He explained that the fund had initially remained in the bank while his administration anticipated what he described as an attempt to use the Federal Government’s intervention support to blackmail him politically.
Makinde alleged that there were attempts to portray his administration as having received federal assistance without properly accounting for its utilisation.
“It was in the bank until, because you know, when you know the people that you’re dealing with, people should ask, how come governors were defecting to APC? But me, I stood my ground,” he said.
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The governor further claimed that he had anticipated the controversy surrounding the fund and was waiting for critics to raise the issue publicly before presenting his account of the transaction.
“Did they not try to blackmail me? We knew that they were going to get to that point where they will say, oh, we gave Oyo State this money. So I was waiting, and when they said it, I gave out my own report of that transaction,” Makinde stated.
He added that after presenting his account, he directed the Commissioner for Finance to deploy the money to projects.
“I instructed the Commissioner for Finance, please put this money now on project because they’ve done what we thought they were going to do,” he said.
The latest disclosure marks a shift from the position previously maintained by the Oyo State Government, which had repeatedly insisted that the ₦30 billion federal intervention fund remained untouched in a dedicated First Bank account.
The controversy surrounding the fund dates back to the January 16, 2024 explosion in the Bodija area of Ibadan, which claimed lives, injured several people and destroyed residential buildings and other properties.
Following the incident, Makinde wrote to President Bola Tinubu on January 19, 2024, requesting ₦100 billion in federal assistance to address the impact of the disaster.
The Federal Government subsequently approved ₦50 billion, but the Oyo State Government maintained that only ₦30 billion was eventually released through the Central Bank of Nigeria on November 4, 2024, while the outstanding ₦20 billion remained unpaid.
The management of the intervention fund became a subject of public controversy in December 2025 after former Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, accused Makinde of failing to account for the money.
Fayose alleged that the governor received ₦50 billion but released only ₦4.5 billion to victims, questioning the whereabouts of the remaining funds.
In response, the Oyo State Government insisted that it received ₦30 billion rather than the full ₦50 billion and that the money remained untouched in a dedicated account.
In a statement issued on January 1, 2026, the state government also disclosed that it had spent ₦24.6 billion from its own resources on the aftermath of the explosion, including ₦20.141 billion on infrastructure reconstruction and ₦4.085 billion on support and compensation for victims.
The government maintained that the expenditure from its own resources was separate from the federal intervention fund.
The state had earlier announced approval of ₦4.5 billion in May 2025 as financial support for survivors and victims, apart from more than ₦200 million it said had been spent on accommodation, feeding, hospital bills and security following the disaster.
However, the handling of the intervention fund had also attracted complaints from some affected residents, who raised questions about property assessments, compensation amounts and the exclusion of some damaged buildings from the exercise.
The Human and Environmental Development Agenda (HEDA) subsequently petitioned the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, calling for an investigation into the receipt, management and utilisation of the intervention funds.
Makinde’s latest comments have brought renewed attention to the controversy, particularly the change from the government’s earlier position that the federal money remained untouched to his disclosure that it had been spent and deployed for developmental projects.
