His surname is a prophet’s first name. Her first name is the feminine version of a popular Biblical name. Alkali Mohammed was a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) and is the face of those who died in the war called election in Rivers last Saturday. His orderly whose head was severed alongside his has become a footnote as a result of class tyranny. We know not his name, neither his face.
Josephine Effiom could not cheat death when it came calling at the Reigners Bible Church Int’l Inc, near the Government House, Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital. This polytechnic student, a friend said, “was one of the first three brilliant chaps in my class”. Her seat at the polytechnic lecture theatre is now vacant, a sad reminder to her course mates that a brilliant soul had been wasted.
Mohammed and Effiom’s ordeals tell tales of how low we have come as a nation. Both would have been alive if ours is not a society that shares so much with Charly Boy Show where anything can happen.
Effiom is the face of a tragedy in a place where fear should have been the last thing on anyone’s mind. It was in the house of God, Reigners Bible Church Int’l Inc. The founder of the church was to have his ordination as a bishop. He is not a small fry. So, the church was jam-packed. Akwa Ibom State Governor Udom Emmanuel came with some of his commissioners and aides. Some of the commissioners are new in the State Executive Council. They were sworn-in December 1.
Thirty minutes into the governor’s arrival hell literally came down. No thanks to human error, the church’s iron pillars gave way and the blue roofs came thumping down. Of course on people! And Effiom died. And many others too. An account even said someone was cut into two by the iron pillars. A policeman who reportedly saved the governor is now six feet below. And some others broke their necks, their limbs and their back. The founder of the church, Pastor Akan Weeks, had his leg broken.
As typical of our nation, no one appears sure of how many people died. The day after, we saw figures as high as 160 in the media. It was attributed to the Chief Medical Director of the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital, who later denied it. Police gave the figure as 29. Governor Emmanuel said only 23 died. And no one is willing to give the names of the dead.
Commissioner for Health Dr. Dominic Ukpong said 26 people died in the unfortunate incident. His words: “Death toll now 26. Patients in the hospitals are168. Total out patients are 50. Total deaths 26. Nine hospitals have the following patients. UUTH, 28 patients; Ibom Specialist Hospital Uyo, 70 patients; Sifon Clinic, 9 patients; Lifecare Clinic, 24 patients; Premiers Clinic, 9 patients; St Lukes Hospital, 22 patients; Gateway Medical Centre, 2 patients; Uwah Mfon Clinic, 1 patient. First Line Clinic, 1 patient. Alma Clinic and Surgery, 2 patients.”
Thanks to Effiom’s classmates who revealed her identity, she would have died anonymously! Now, she is the face of the Uyo tragedy that should not have been.
This tragedy has turned the University of Uyo Teaching hospital (UUTH), Anua General Hospital, Life Care Hospital and the Ibom Specialist Hospital into Mecca of some sort. In these hospitals, those who defeated death are receiving treatment to heal their broken necks, arms, back and heads. Tears from families of those recuperating now rent the air in these hospitals. The story at the mortuary sections of these hospitals is grimmer. Coming to terms with the tragedy is a task that is defying many for now.
For students of the University of Uyo and the Uyo City Polytechnic, which are believed to have been worst hit by the disaster, reality looks like dream.
Emmanuel’s men who crawled out of death’s hole have interesting testimonies to share. His Chief Press Secretary, Ekerette Udoh, said an iron rod nearly cut his neck, but eventually hit him on the back. The cap of his left knee is broken and pains still travel all over his body.
The commissioner for Information, Charles Udoh who joined the State Executive Council only some one week earlier, thought he was watching a movie when the pillars started coming down. He was on his way out of the church to catch a flight when tragedy struck. He would have been out but protocol demanded that he told the governor before vanishing from the church hall. It was this protocol-induced task he was accomplishing when death almost took him away like Effiom and the others whose true figures and names we may never know. He had to run here and there to prevent the iron pillars from turning him to a candidate for the mortuary.
Nollywood actor Ekere Nkanga, who had acted almost all roles imaginable, was humbled when he had to wade through bodies to safety.
“Shortly after the governor and his entourage and the bishops took their seats, the next thing I heard was the bang from the falling iron. By the time the iron came down, I noticed that people from the safe areas were running to the centre, where I was sitting,” he said, adding: “I hid under some people. A few seconds later, as I was trying to get up, the body of a man cut into two and fell on me. There were other corpses on me. I looked out for my brother but I couldn’t find him. Later, I found my phone. I called the Chairman, Uyo Local Government Area, to mobilise rescue officials to the venue.”
He managed not to have a direct impact with falling rods, but by that Saturday evening he discovered his neck was broken.
“The impact of diving must have been responsible for my broken neck,” he said.
Now he wears a neck collar and is under observation in the hospital. Effiom and others would have gladly given testimonies if Nkanga’s fate had befallen them.
The governor has set up a panel to probe the disaster that could have claimed his life. Pastor Weeks believes it is the devil fighting back and he has urged Christians to unite and not see it as his battle alone. But we must give unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and give unto God what is God’s. The fleeing contractor must account for this tragedy, which the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE) has said was caused by shoddiness. Only then will we not continue to waste brilliant minds like Effiom.
For Mohammed, his orderly and other policemen, their nation gave them an assignment. On the face value, the assignment looks simple: provide security during the legislative rerun election in Rivers. But Rivers is like no other state. This assignment that is simple and routine in other places is similar to going to war in dear Rivers, where commissions of inquiries have established that politicians outsourced killing of their opponents and their supporters.
Before Mohammed, many a policeman had gone. Many a soldier was killed. Mohammed and his orderly met the waterloo at Ujju community near Omoku in Ogba/Egbema/Ndoni Local Government Area of Rivers. The agents of death waylaid the DSP and his junior colleagues from the Mobile Police Unit 48. After the hoodlums took off the duo’s heads, they snatched their patrol vehicle and weapons. Three policemen escaped, but five are still “missing in action”.
Some people have ‘justified’ these men’s fate by saying it was a reprisal attack because the police were terrorising the people to give advantage to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the rerun legislative election. Governor Nyesom Wike accused some policemen of killing three Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) members in Bodo-Ogoni in Gokana Local Government Area and Tai-Ogoni Local Government Area. Soldiers, he said, were involved in ballot box snatching, illegal escort of politicians, arrest and detention of voters. The army has denied the allegations.
Even if Mohammed and others broke any law, jungle justice is also a crime. It is akin to replacing ringworm with leprosy.
My final take: In the Effiom and Mohammed stories, we see a society where values have collapsed, where everything is falling apart and where money makes man.
Effiom wanted education. So, she went to school. She wanted salvation; so, she went to church but someone’s greed and thoughtlessness made the iron pillars come down on her and killed her and her dreams. Mohammed was policing and some thought he was not policing well and taking his head was their solution to what they considered a malaise. What a people!
