Speaking with Vanguard at the scene, Mohammed said he was rushed to the hospital and discharged this morning.

He said he escaped death by the whiskers because he offered to help his neighbor put out the fire that preceded the explosion.

Recall that his claim that foreign illegal miners caused the explosion was earlier voiced by Governor Seyi Makinde.

Narrating the events that preceded the explosion, Mohammed said: “Around 7 p.m. last night (Tuesday), I was going to pray.

“As I was standing to start the prayer, I noticed some fire burning in the next house. So, I stopped the prayer and quickly picked my fire extinguisher.

“I told my boys that the neighbor’s house is on fire, let’s go and help.

“I then came downstairs. One guy saw me and said the fire was beyond what an extinguisher can put out. I then picked my phone to call the fire brigade men.

“However, the next thing I heard was that blast. It threw me off the ground and landed me on the stairs. Part of the house had cracked. My boys advised that I should jump.

“Fire started just a metre away from that house and as of the time we came downstairs, there was no one on the premises.”

Also, speaking on the occupants of the house, he said: “The house where the fire started is occupied by a Senagalese or Namibian and they engage in mining activities. 

“Definitely, they had explosives inside the building. The explosion was as a result of the explosives kept in the building.

“The foreigners have been living in here since 2013. They go in the morning and come back in the evening. I wouldn’t know if their immediate neighbour knows they are into mining.”

“The foreigners ran out before the explosion.”

Furthermore, he clarified that immediately after the foreigners saw the raging fire, they knew the implications because of what they kept inside.

Mohammed said: “They, including their children, ran out of the house and they didn’t alert us so that we could run away too. 

“They knew the implications when they saw the fire. So they ran out without alerting us. Thank God I came down trying to help put out the fire. I would have been dead by now.

“The whole house would have collapsed on me. I wanted to save the house of my neighbor from being burnt. That’s what saved me. If anyone had been in the house, the person would have gone.”

Asked if he knew his neighbors were illegal miners he said: “We have them all over. They are also at Orogun. That’s their trade and that’s what they came to Nigeria to do. And explosives are part of the things they use in blasting. Definitely, they had kept them in the house.”