30th March, 2020
By Ayorinde Oluokun
The National Space Research and Development Agency, NASRDA will soon release its findings on the Akure blast that occurred on Saturday 28 March.
Mr. Felix Ale, the agency’s head of media and corporate communications, said investigators have been to the site to determine the cause of the explosion which destroyed no fewer than 100 houses in Eleyowo village.
Ale spoke amid the controversies over the cause of the blast on the Akure-Owo expressway, a major artery that linked the Southwest part of the country and the North.
The blast not only left a crater on the road, it also caused injuries to many people living in the area. It also made the road impassable.
Police attributed the blast to a broken down vehicle, which carried explosives. They claimed the truck exploded and even sank. 
The Police claimed officers of their Ordinance Unit who were escorting the vehicle tried their best to put out the fire, before the explosives went off.
Governor Rotimi Akeredolu also visited the site and seemed to have bought the police version of the event.
He said: “I have been briefed by the security chiefs that in the early hours of Saturday March 28th, a vehicle in a convoy transporting explosives to a storage facility in a neighbouring state developed a fault while in transit along the Akure Owo Road about 2km from the Akure Airport.” 
So far,the Police have failed to show the wreckage of the truck while other cynics also pointed out that there were no signs of fire or smoke suggestive of bomb explosion in the area.
Suspicion that there may be more to the blast than the Police offered intensified about 24 hours later.
A team led by Professor Adekunle Adepelumi, a professor of geophysics and earthquake engineering at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, said the explosion was caused by a giant rock from space known as meteors which impacted the location from “an angle of 43 degrees.”
While further disputing the claim of the Police, the Professor noted that there was no evidence of a buried vehicle, buried ordinance or explosives at the site.
He added that a preliminary analysis of the vibration, noise, seismicity, water analysis, radioactivity studies, rock and soil at the site by his team suggests that the impact of the blast covers 1km radius of the surroundings of the crater.
There was no evidence of fire or burning of anything within the vicinity, the team found.
“No evidence of radioactivity radiation was found within the crater and immediate vicinity. The field evidence point to a conclusion that a meteoric from an asteroid belt that travels at a great speed from space impacted the location at an angle of 43 degrees created an ejecta at South-Western part,” Adepelumi wrote.
The OAU team also noted that a crack opening that vary in thickness from 3mm to 4 metres occurred on the wall of most of the buildings in the area, “but not at the base of the buildings.”
Despite the claim by the Professor, the Inspector General of Police on Monday set up a team which included the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency (NGSA) and the Commissioner of Police in charge of the Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit, Force Headquarters, Abuja, CP Maikudi A. Shehu to investigate the blast.
DCP Frank Mba, Force Public Relations Officer said that the Special Investigation Team was set up to “unravel the immediate and remote cause of the unfortunate tragic explosion that occurred at Ogbese near Akure, the Ondo State Capital on Friday, 27th March, 2020.”
However, Ale told P.M. NEWS that NASRDA has also been investigating the blast to determine the cause.
He said the team from the space agency was also at the site of the explosion with the Professor Adepelumi’s team.
`’We are investigating the matter.The Minister of Science and Technology will brief the press on our findings soon”.
Ale did not give a specific date when the report of the agency will be ready. “NASRDA will make a statement as soon as we are sure of our scientific findings,” he said.