Tag: Jos

The Igbo living in Jos, the Plateau State capital, where two bombs went off last week, killing no fewer than 118 people, have been counting their losses.

The Igbo said they lost 36 people in the explosions at the Jos Terminus market. No fewer than 42 were injured.

The Eze Igbo in Jos, Prof. Jerome Obilom, unveiled the chilling details at a news conference in Jos.

Many Igbo traders are still missing, he added.

Obilom said: “The May 20 bomb blast in Jos killed 36 of our members and 42 others injured.

“In addition, many others are still unaccounted for while Igbo traders lost goods worth millions of naira.

“But our major problem now is the move by the state government to give mass burial to the victims without informing members of the community, especially we the Igbo. It is our tradition not to bury our own outside our homestead.

“Some hospital authorities were very hostile when the community, led by the Chairman of the Igbo Community Association, Chief Jonah Ezekwueme, visited them to identify victims of the blast who were Igbo.

Obilom said: “There is the need to compensate victims of the bomb blast. In past incidents, Ndigbo were neglected and made to bear the cost of burying and rehabilitating their members alone.

“While recognising the fact that some of the victims were shattered into shreds, which necessitated that some body parts were packed into bags that necessitated the mass burial, we still insist that  Ndigbo in Jos should have been consulted to identify their own because it is not our custom to bury our dead outside our traditional homes.

“We, therefore, condemn such act and implore the authorities to allow Ndigbo access to the bodies so that those missing could be accounted for because if we had been allowed inside the mortuary, we would have been able to identify many of our members who were unfortunately caught up in the bomb blast.”

The Igbo community was able to identify the dead through town and community who took roll calls of their members after the explosions.

The Ezeigbo deplored a situation where Ndigbo were neglected in the distribution of relief materials and urged the authorities to send such materials to aid the victims and their families.

He also asked the Plateau State government to hasten efforts in the relocation of street traders to the Satellite market in Rukuba road area of Jos, adding that the traffic caused by the traders along the busy road was responsible for the heavy losses caused by the bomb blast.

Obilom said that the Igbo community is in support of efforts being contemplated by the state government to bring sanity to the markets in the state.

The hitherto peaceful city of Jos, capital of Plateau State, witnessed twin bomb blasts last week that left many dead and scores injured. YUSUFU AMINU IDEGU, who met many relatives of survivors, captures the anguish of the injured many of who are still in hospitals, struggling to stay alive. 

Days after two blasts rocked Jos, Plateau State,  tears have not ceased. Distraught relatives of the dead and crestfallen survivors rue their plight as the rebound of horror unsettles the Tin City like a stubborn wound that has refused to heal. Scores of bereaved relations are battling to claim the remains of their loved ones from the morgues.  Others have besieged hospitals, holding vigil with doctors, who are battling  to save the lives of the injured.

There is a pathetic case of a woman in Ward 1 of the Plateau Specialist Hospital, Mrs. Mary Baba, 46, whose face was damaged in the blast so much that she would require a corrective surgery to regain her looks. Her hope of surviving the injury hangs in the balance. Another victim is receiving treatment at the hospital with her three-year old daughter. The duo sustained severe burns during the bloody incident. Next to her, is the bloodcurdling case of a student of theAbubakar Tafawa Balewa University, ATBU, Bauchi. She remained unconscious, three days after the blast. But her sister who was at her bed side when our reporter visited the hospital gave her name as Zuliya Yunusa. “She (Suliya) was returning in a Keke NAPEP (tricycle) to our house at Gangeri, when the bombs went off. The blast threw the tricycle up and smashed it to the ground. Swathed by headless bodies, she tried to crawl out to get help but soon went into coma. She later found herself in the hospital when she recovered the next day.”

A civil servant, Akpan Harris, who was at the hospital to retrieve the body of his wife, Rebecca, said: “I took my wife to the market and dropped her to get some few things. Ten minutes later, I heard deafening bang and by the time I rushed back to the market, everywhere was on fire. I knew the worst had happened when she could not be reached on her cell phone. She was nowhere to be found.   I launched a search for her before her body was discovered here.”

The blasts also cut short the lives of seven final year students of the Faculty of Medical Sciences, University of Jos (UNIJOS). The late students had left the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH) for the shoes market without any inkling that danger was lurking in the corner. They were on their way to the roadside market to buy some undisclosed items when the blasts occurred. None of the students survived. Six of them were burnt.  The body of one of them was recovered from the inferno that occurred in the wake of the explosions.

Although another student of the university, Kenneth Datong, was ‘lucky’ to have cheated death but not without sustaining injuries after an iron rod pierced his legs. His mother, Hajiya Tafisau Datong, who recalled his son’s narrow escape, said: “He was returning from school when the first explosion occurred. He did not die, but an iron rod from nowhere flew out of the scene of the blast and lodged in his leg, inflicting serious pain. He has been booked for a surgical operation next week so as to remove the substance because doctors said only through a major surgical operation can the iron be removed.”

An eyewitness, Mathew Bawa, described the scene of the horrific incident which claimed over 100 lives last week as “hell.” He said:  “There was a replica of the biblical description of hell on Tuesday at a roadside market on Murtala Muhammed Way, Jos. I saw human beings roasted alive by fire before the arrival of men of the Fire Service who put out the fire. It was real hell I saw. It is beyond description my brother.”

The latest explosions came barely three years after the city witnessed a similar incident in December 2010 when two explosives went off simultaneously at a beer palour in Anwauan Rukuba and Kabong communities. That incident left more than 100 dead. The second bomb attack happened two years after, precisely on February 20, 2012 at the headquarters of Church of God in Nation (COCIN), to adjacent the Central Bank of Nigeria branch in Jos. Four members of the church got killed in the attack.  Over 20 persons were injured. The third bomb attack in Jos happened two months after the one at St. Finbarr’s Catholic Church, Rayfield. By the time an inventory of victims was taken, no fewer than 25 members of the church were dead.  More than 30 congregants were injured. Another bomb attack was also was recorded at God Chosen Church of God (GCCG) along Rukuba Road, Jos. Two members of the church were killed in the attack and several others injured. All the attacks were carried out by suicide bombers who  drove explosives-laden vehicles which they rammed into the churches during service hours. Since the last attack in 2012, not a few churches had taken security measures to frisk worshippers and safeguard their premises from such attacks. The security measures may have indeed paid off as no blast had taken place in Jos until a rebound of bloody explosions last Tuesday.

The Director-General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Sidi Sani, and Inspector-General of Police, Muhammed Abubakar, were in Jos a day after the tragedy for on-the-spot assessment of the incident. The visitors particularly visited the victims of the explosions receiving treatment at JUTH.

JUTH Medical Director Dr Edmond Banwat, while briefing the visitors, said: “Most of the casualties were brought to the hospital from the scene of explosions. 48 people were brought with various degrees of injuries while 22 corpses were brought. A few hours ago, some of the victims with third degree burn who were rushed to other hospitals in the city were also referred to our hospital for major treatment. Two of the dead victims are children, majority of them are women.”

Some relatives were seen checking the morgue and wards in the hope of finding their family members who may have fallen victim of the blasts. Some were lucky to quickly find and identify bodies of their loved ones.  Others were searching relatives endlessly for the bodies of their. Those who were able to identify bodies of victims were asked to bring their photographs as prof of their  relationship to claim the bodies. Some relatives of the victims who spoke with our reporter complained of the high cost of some of the drugs prescribed by doctors for the treatment of their siblings. One of the relatives, Audu Daman, said, “Government is only making propaganda with claims of footing the medical bill of the victims. At the moment, government officials are nowhere to be found, yet we are asked to buy drugs every day. We have spent close to N20, 000 and we are already exhausted. We have been borrowing money for feeding and drugs. This is the time the victims need the government most so as to recover fast, but we can’t see any government official here. We keep hearing on radio that government has accepted to defray the bill but right now many victims may die due to lack of relevant drugs in the hospital.” Hamza Aliyu echoed Daman’s views, saying: “The nature of injuries of these victims are high. It is not what any family can bear; it requires government intervention as prompt as possible.”