Nigerians turn anger on military

LAGOS, Nigeria -- Sadness turned to rage against Nigeria's military Tuesday for putting a huge arms cache smack in the middle of a crowded Lagos neighborhood and setting the stage for the explosions and panic that left more than 600 dead. \nDistraught people searching for missing loved ones blamed the military for storing weapons, including rockets and heavy artillery shells, in the northern Ikeja neighborhood. \n"The army uses money to buy weapons that kill us," yelled David Eyetse after emerging from a mortuary in a hospital where he had just found the body of his 19-year-old brother, Henry. \nMany Nigerians remain distrustful of the military following 15 years of corrupt and sometimes brutal dictatorship that ended with 1999 elections. \nPresident Olusegun Obasanjo declared Tuesday a day of national morning after a string of explosions at an army weapons depot Sunday left hundreds dead, mainly women and children who drowned after leaping into a canal to escape the inferno. Flags were flown at half-staff across Lagos, a city of 12 million that is Nigeria's commercial capital. \nObasanjo said more than 600 bodies had been recovered, many from the Oke Afa canal.\n"What happened in Lagos was a monumental tragedy," he said in a radio address. \nLagos' Vanguard newspaper estimated more than 2,000 people were killed, while state television cited unidentified witnesses as saying between 750 and 1,000 bodies had been recovered. The reports could not be confirmed. \nArmy spokesman Col. Felix Chukwumah said the explosions began when a fire spread to the depot, which is surrounded by crowded slums and working-class neighborhoods. The blasts propelled shrapnel and shock waves for miles, shattering windows six miles away at the international airport. \nThe army has acknowledged the storage facility at Ikeja was old and in need of revamping. A spokesman said he did not know how the fire started, but a police officer Sunday said it began at a nearby gas station. \nState and military officials were quick to assure Nigerians that the fire was accidental and not a sign of military unrest. They announced an investigation into its cause. Rumors of a coup had circulated for more than an hour after the blasts began. \nCorp. Kabiru Lawal was searching for his sister Tuesday after checking hospitals and mortuaries for nearly two days. She fled her home in the barracks to escape the explosions. \n"She was very frightened, so we hope she found a safe place," Lawal said. "We don't want to believe anything else." \nLagos Governor Bola Ahmed Tinubu blamed the deaths on military negligence. \n"Ikeja mortuary is filled. They have started to use other local government facilities," Tinubu said. "It's a disaster. We did not anticipate it would rise to this level." \nObasanjo's election ended 15 years of successive military dictatorships, whose legacy has left deep scars in this West African nation. \nThe explosions sent fireballs towering over Nigeria's commercial capital. Hundreds of bodies were pulled out of the canal Monday in Lagos' Isolo neighborhood, which is about 5 miles from the arms depot reflecting the force of the explosions. \nGetting an accurate count remained difficult -- in part because volunteers were carrying out the rescue effort and whisking some bodies to private homes. \nAn unknown number of people were also killed or injured while handling unexploded shells and ammunition that were showered for miles by the blasts, Lagos State Police Commissioner Mike Okiro said. \nIn Isolo, a boy was seen casually tossing in his hands what looked like a hand grenade. \nLarge numbers of children were separated from their families during Sunday night's panic, Okiro said. \nLagos state government spokesman Dele Alake appealed Wednesday for donations of food and other supplies for the thousands left homeless by the accident -- many of them residents of the military base. \nPope John Paul II sent a condolence message to Nigerian bishops, assuring his "closeness in prayer" for victims of the tragedy and for the rescue workers.