Nyanya Bomb Blast: I Lost My Business Money, Victim Cries Out
— April 16, 2014Even though the 141 victims in the various hospitals have all expressed gratitude to God for keeping them alive, they cannot help but wish that the tragedy did not occur.
At the Asokoro General Hospital, one of the victims on admission, Ebere Ibechi, who had her chin heavily bandaged and writhing in pains, managed to cry out, “I lost my business money and my bag in the blast.”
The 35-year-old businesswoman from Imo State was in serious pain, and her husband, Edmond, a furniture maker-based in New Nyanya, who was at her bedside, narrated how his wife got caught up in the tragedy.
“She told me that when she boarded the vehicle on her way to Zuba, she was hungry. She went out of the bus to go and buy something. It was when she was buying something that the explosion occurred. That is why she is alive now. All of those in the bus died,” he said.
He called on the federal government to put a stop to the mindless killings taking place in the country.
When LEADERSHIP sought to find out from Mr Edmond Ibechi, how much his wife lost to the explosion, the sister-in-law who was close by replied, “N50, 000.”
Also looking bewildered and perhaps, still finding it difficult to believe what happened to him, Charles Ikenne Oguike, an applicant, who has been searching for a job for the past four years, told our correspondent: “So, this thing that they have been doing in those northern states of Yobe, Adamawa and Taraba has really happened to me. You can see people experimenting on me. As you can see, it’s not something to be joyful about.”
“I have so many injuries on my body. But I still thank God. My happiness is that I am alive because there are so many of them out there who did not survive.”
Suffering from burn with his right arm badly peeled almost from his elbow to his wrist and pocket size injuries dotting his face and head, he managed to wax philosophical, “ Well, I am still okay because I am alive. When there is life, there is hope.”
The 32-year-old disclosed that his parents, including his brother were already aware of his predicament.
For 21-year-old computer analyst, John Alkani, who works in Zone 4, plaza, Sheraton, it was like falling asleep only that he woke up to find himself at Asokoro General Hospital.
Alkani said he was about to board the el-Rufai bus when he heard an explosion. According to him, that was the last thing he remembered until he found himself at Asokoro General Hospital.
Blessing Agi, a supervisor for Urban Mass Transit who has her rib cage heavily bandaged and her legs in cast, also told a similar story except that she was in the bus when the explosion occurred.
Minister of Health, Prof Onyebuchi Chukwu, who took journalists round the hospitals where the victims were admitted, said some of them had to be transferred from Asokoro General Hospital for treatment in other hospitals.
He said that the 14 of them currently admitted at the hospital were doing well and that some of them would even be discharged later yesterday while surgery was being planned for some of them who require it.
Chukwu revealed that among some of the casualties received yesterday at the hospital immediately after the blast, two died from severe head injuries within few minutes of arrival. But he assured that since then, no life has been lost at the hospital.
At the Maitama General Hospital, what would probably be uppermost in the mind of a bomb blast victim, Mr Olowokere Taiwo, is how he is going to eke a living after all this.
With a wife and eight children to feed, perhaps, he has every cause to be worried, considering the fact that his means of livelihood is no more.
But Olowokere is still lucky as he recounted: “That Monday morning, I had already loaded my 18-seater bus when I made to take off. Suddenly, I heard a blast and before I knew what was happening, I saw myself in the hospital.”
He said he had been told that his 18-seater bus was burnt beyond recognition.
Audu Joseph, 24, was on his way to work on his motorcycle okada when the bomb went off.
“I was in the hold-up at Nyanya because there is always hold-up every morning when the bomb exploded,” he said
The employee of African University of Science and Technology, called on the government to come to the victims’ aid especially those who lost their means of livelihood.
Civilians are not the only ones counting their losses. A 33-year-old police woman, Sgt. Rakiya Mohammed, is on admission at Asokoro General Hospital.
A mother with three children, she was on her way to work that fateful morning when she suddenly noticed that the bus she was in was on fire. Her survival instinct took over. As she scrambled to get off the bus along with other passengers in the vehicle, she broke her leg. She found herself in the hospital.
Perhaps, one of the miraculous events is the safety of a 10-month- old baby who reunited with her mother yesterday at Wuse General Hospital.
According to sources, she was recovered from the scene of the Monday bomb blast in Nyanya and taken to Asokoro. But, unfortunately, nobody could locate her mother until the aunt, Maria Dominic, showed up.
The baby was handed over to its mother, Gloria Adams, who is in the Intensive Care Unit of Wuse General hospital yesterday.
Incidentally, they were three babies taken there but one died.
Nigerians Still Trooping To Donate Blood
The Health Minister has commended Nigerians for the overwhelming response of people to blood donation over the incident, saying that over 250 people had donated so far.
He said the response has been overwhelming so much so that even the British High Commissioner and members of the British High Commission were among those who donated blood Monday.
“I must thank Nigerians for that attitude because it was just an appeal through the radio and people started coming. I have just been told that doctors and other professionals are coming round to donate too. So it’s been quite encouraging and blood has not been our problem. Nigerians and foreigners have responded very well. We have enough supply of them.”
On the allegation that they have not been given food, the FCT, Secretary Health services, Dr Demola Onakhomoya refuted the claim, saying that the FCT administration has been solely responsible for their treatment and welfare, so something as trivial as food shouldn’t be a problem.
Overrules Mass Burial For Victims
The minister, who put the death toll at 75, disclosed that pathologists with their colleagues from West African Forensic Association were meeting in order to commence work on the burned and charred remains of victims from the blast.
He said the dismembered corpses need to be properly sorted out, and that pathologists and relatives had started the process of identification.
Chukwu, however, said that in cases where the bodies cannot be identified, they would be buried decently, but that “there will be no mass burial.”
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