Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State yesterday gave out cheques worth N17.5 million to 70 families of victims of the “black Sunday”, January 27, 2002, at the Oke Afa Memorial Cenotaph where about 1000 people drowned in the Oke Afa Canal in the old Oshodi Isolo LGA now Ejigbo Local Council Development Area, LCDA.

Fashola, who performed the symbolic ceremony, urged the families to “let go of their grief and march on.” The governor also unveiled the ceremonial wall of remembrance and later laid a wreath at the foot of the January 27 cenotaph. According to him:“We must take solace in the fact that there will always be a special place in history for people whose deaths bring about change, and we must take solace in the fact that our loved ones will never be forgotten.”

In his long address, Fashola noted that that the pains of the bomb blast have brought change to disaster management in the state saying that parts of the gains of the tragedy include; a more proactive training of emergency responders, the establishment of relief camps at Agbowa with another ongoing at Alimosho, and the commencement of the construction of the new Ajao-Ejigbo link bridge and road and ferry terminals that would be constructed at the Oke Afa and Ejigbo ends of the canal which will open up water transportation from Ejigbo to the central business districts of Lagos Island and Festac.

Fashola said eight school blocks containing 82 classrooms have been fully built and operational at the Ikeja Military Cantonment since 2010, while government has equally rebuilt and fully equipped the damaged hospital in the cantonment