The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Suicide

  • How mental illness could lead to suicide

    The most common cause of death for people aged 15 – 24 is suicide, which is the 13th leading cause of death worldwide, according to World Health Organization (WHO).

    The United Nations body submits that people who die by suicide is expected to reach 1.5 million per year by 2020.

    The aggregate number of people who die by suicide suffer from mental illness.

    Recent estimates suggest that the disease burden caused by mental illnesses will account for 25 per cent of the total disease burden in the world in the next two decades, making it the most important category of ill-health (more important than cancer or heart diseases).

    Regarding this prospect, mental illness is the major problem that is challenging the health sector worldwide which should be a major concern.

    Mental illness is medical conditions that disrupt a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. It’s also the ineffectiveness, mal-functioning of the cerebellum or inadequate vitality of the brain to operate. Mental illness is not the result of personal weakness, poor upbringing or lack of character.

    Serious mental illnesses include Major Depression, Schizophrenia, Bipolar Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Panic Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTCD), Borderline Personality Disorder Impulse Control, and Addiction Disorders.

    Schizophrenia is one of the psychotic mental disorders and is characterized by symptoms of thought, behavior, and social problems which psychotic disorder is a good example.

    However, Psychotic disorders involve distorted awareness and thinking. Two of the most common symptoms of psychotic disorders are hallucinations — the experiencing of images or sounds that are not real, such as hearing voices — and delusions, which are false beliefs that the ill person accepts as true, despite evidence to the contrary.

    Schizophrenia is considered to be the result of a complex group of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors.

    Medications that have been found to be mostly effective in treating the positive symptoms of schizophrenia are first- and second-generation antipsychotics.

    Health-care practitioners diagnose schizophrenia by gathering comprehensive medical, family, mental-health, and social/cultural information. In addition to providing treatment that is appropriate to the diagnosis, professionals attempt to determine the presence of mental illnesses that may co-occur.

    People with schizophrenia are at increased risk of having a number of other mental-health conditions, committing suicide, and otherwise dying earlier than people without this disorder.

    Bipolar Disorder can easily be characterized and revolves around mood that range from the low level of depression and mania at a goal. However Bipolar is a distortion, long-term situation that rebel your thinking faculty.

    People with   Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) feel remorse which heighten their emotions and make them do extremely what they ought not to have done and they acted abnormally. With OCD, upsetting or scary thoughts or images, pop into a person’s mind and are very hard to turn off. People with OCD feel strong urges to do certain things repeatedly and more so, in order to banish the scary thoughts, one can try to ward off the bad thing they dread, or to make extra sure that things are safe or clean or right.

    Most People that fall victim of impulse control disorders are unable to resist urges, or impulses, to perform acts that could be harmful to themselves or others. Pyromania (starting fires), kleptomania (stealing), and compulsive gambling are examples of impulse control disorders. Alcohol and drugs are common objects of addictions. Often, people with these disorders become so involved with the objects of their addiction that they begin to ignore responsibilities and relationships.

    Mental illness can affect people of any age, race, religion, or income.

    Psychosocial treatment such as cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, and peer support groups and other community services can be component of treatment plan that assist with recovery.

    Heroin, Cocaine, amphetamines, alcoholic drinks and the likes are the cause of addictive disease. This particular disease gives different result like developing their tolerance with the objective of heightening their emotion to do things extra ordinarily.

    Moreover, Cocaine addiction may also involve disruption of the endogenous opioid system in addition to the well-known primary effect of cocaine in blocking reuptake of dopamine by the synaptic dopamine transporter protein

    It should be noted that mental disorders including depression are real, treatable health conditions.

    Yet a significant number of those with mental illnesses who die by suicide do not contact health or social services near the time of their death. In many instances there are insufficient services available to assist those in need at times of crisis.

    Although the attempt to fight stigma has been quite limited by undertaken public educational programs in reducing the stigma associated with mental illness and suicide.

    Just as physical health is important, so is good mental health. Mental illness and psychological disorders have good treatment options with medications, psychotherapy, and other treatments.

  • ‘I will commit suicide than joining PDP’

    ‘I will commit suicide than joining PDP’

    Human rights activist and lawyer Festus Keyamo is a senatorial aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the Delta Central District. He spoke with WALE AJETUNMOBI on his plans for the zone.

     

     

    What is your mission in politics?

    It is no news again that we have declared for the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Delta State. And the reason is because we understand the need for all the progressive forces in the country to come together. We also realise the need for a strong coalition to confront the menace of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). That is why we think that, whatever reservation we may have as individuals about certain individuals, who are also coming into the APC; the most important thing for us is to bury our differences as opposition parties to the PDP and come together to fight the PDP.

    And I am sure you know that I am even the last convert, the last convert because, all the so-called radicals have all gone into politics, including my late boss, Chief Gani Fawehinmi. But I have since kept away from politics because I felt that, perhaps, I could still make a huge difference as a private person. I have tried my best as a private person and I am sure you have followed the course of my struggle for sometimes.

    So, I have a strong conviction going into politics because I have seen even the limitations I have as a private person. I know that I will have a bigger voice if I have a bigger platform to express myself. I am sure you saw recently that the senators did not even know the power they have over the appointment of Service Chiefs; it took my effort to go to court and it was a four-year legal battle that culminated into a judgment in my favour, that in fact, the President cannot appoint the Service Chiefs without the concurrence of the Senate. But they, themselves, did not know the extent of their power; all of these I did as a private person, not as a senator. Recently, I sent a memo to the National Assembly about how to speed up corruption trials and constitutional amendment. It was a very detailed suggestion on how to amend the Constitution. But I was doing all of these as a private person. So you can see that this is not an overnight brainwave, that I have woken up overnight and said I want to be a senator. No.

    There are other highly qualified aspirants on the field…

    Permit me to say, and with the greatest respect to other aspirants, there is no single aspirant in Delta Central, that comes one mile near to what I have achieved in promoting constitutional democracy. Not one of them.

    So, if you are talking about somebody, who is a square peg in a square hole or a round peg in a round hole, please, it cannot be anybody but myself for this job. And they all agreed, if you ask all of them. Even the supporters of the other parties, they agreed that Keyamo is the best for this job, ‘but…’ they will now bring other things… ‘he has been a lawyer and he has been doing well…leave this for politicians…’

    But the question I ask is this: in the last 20 years or so, I have grown up in the eyes of the public; everybody can account for everywhere I have been and every position I have taken. You may like me or hate; you may detest me, but you cannot deny the fact that, for the last 20 years, I have spoken up my mind on every issue. So, I am not hidden; it will be a surprise, if I take a position in the public and somebody says na Keyamo dey talk this? It is because they know the position I would normally take. Now, do you want to vote for people, who you don’t even know where they stand on issues? Look at all the aspirants, you cannot say of any of them that you know where they stand on any issue. Not one. And I am serious about this; not one.

    What are your programmes for the people in your senatorial district?

    I have released a six-page document and I passed it round to everybody. Even your newspaper, The Nation, has used it. I am the only person that has done so. The six-page document is on why I want to be in the Senate and what I intend to do. I have talked about the consumers’ rights protection bill I intend to propose; I have talked about corporate manslaughter bill that the late Senator Ewherido was pursuing before he died, that I intend to continue. I have talked about even the Aladja Steel Complex, what I intend to do as a senator to make sure that I touch the right button to even revive it. I also talked about this judgment I got on the part of the Senate and I want to make sure that they implement that judgment and to make sure that they exercise the right power.

    I have also said that I will be the first senator in the history of Nigeria, and I am saying this on tape and you know I will do it, to publish my salary and allowances. I will be the first to run a very transparent tenure. Every three months, I will publish my activities in the Senate. It would be an innovation that every quarter, I will be publishing my activities in the Senate to my constituents and Nigerians. Those are the types of things I want to do differently because, the normal question to ask is: ‘ what are you doing differently?’ but that exactly is the type of innovation I want to bring into the senate. I want to plead; for many years, The Nation’s editorial slant has always been: let good people come out to run. That is the totality of all your editorials, that we do not deserve the leaders we have; but we keep lamenting that nobody wants to take the plunge. People are saying I am going into murky waters of politics; I am sure many people believe I am a mad person now.

    They would say: ‘ you have done so well as a lawyer, you have reached your height… what are you doing here?’ But I asked a simple, which I have been asking for the past one year when I made up my mind, I have not gotten an answer. The simple question is: if people who are successful in their individual professions like us should remain where they are, who should run for public office? Nobody has provided an answer.

    Does it mean you will jettison your governorship ambition?

    Absolutely not. Governorship is in 2015, this is 2013. There is a vacancy in the Senate. So, 2015 is still faraway. But then, it has afforded me an opportunity to write an examination for people to see how much I can handle public office. If I did not do well, they can easily tell me to sit at home. But this time, I will have less to talk and more to do. If I win the Senate seat, my work would speak for me more than my rhetoric this time. Because it would now be a situation of, here is how I can do it. So, I will not talk too much again. If I am running as a private person, I have to talk and talk, and beg people to convince them that I can also handle public office. But if I run for the Senate now, I would do less talking and more work, for my work will speak for myself.

    Why APC and not PDP or other parties?

    I have said it before, that if the PDP is the last party on earth, then I would commit suicide. If they say for me to continue to live, that I must join the PDP, I will rather commit suicide. The PDP is an amalgam of the most undemocratic forces I have seen on earth, where 16 is more than 19 in the arithmetic of the party; where five people are more than 27 people in Rivers State House of Assembly to impeach a governor. It is only in Africa, and in Nigeria, it is only in the PDP that you can find that kind of arithmetic. I will not be part of that arithmetic because to be part of that arithmetic, I will have to go back to Primary One and I don’t want to go back to Primary One.

     

    How do you intend to win people in DPP, where the late Senator Ewerido belonged, over to the APC?

    I think many of them realise that if you are serious opposition in this country now, you have to be in APC. That is the truth of the matter; there is no gainsaying it. That is why you see people like us, hard converts, going into politics going into APC. It is only coalition of serious-minded opposition now. If DPP is an opposition to the PDP in Delta State, and they know they are serious, they know, too, that the only place they should come to is APC. You can see many of them are coming over to the APC now. With very much respect to the leaders of the DPP in Delta State, we know that it is only a matter of time for all them to be in the APC. It can’t be too long.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Mali soldier killed in Timbuktu suicide bomb attack

    Mali soldier killed in Timbuktu suicide bomb attack

    A suicide attack has killed a Malian soldier in the historic city of Timbuktu, the army says.

    The attacker set off an explosive belt inside a car which had been stopped at a checkpoint near the airport, a military source said.

    This is the first suicide attack in Timbuktu since French-led forces ousted Islamist militants from the city in January.

    The French army says it also killed at least 10 militants in a later attack.

    The French government says it is still trying to verify claims by al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) that it had executed French hostage Philippe Verdon on 10 March, in retaliation for France’s intervention in Mali.

    France sent troops in January to regain the north from a loose coalition of militant Islamist groups, saying they threatened to turn the whole of Mali into a “terrorist state”.

    “A booby-trapped car exploded during the night [Wednesday] near the Timbuktu airport,” a military source told the AFP news agency.

    “The jihadist who set off his belt was killed instantly and one of the soldiers injured in the explosion died in hospital.”

    The BBC’s Alex Duval Smith in Mali’s capital, Bamako, says the attack is a setback to French claims that it is winning the war against jihadist forces in Mali.

    On Wednesday President Francois Hollande said the military operation was in its last phase and that Mali was ‘’days away’’ from regaining its territorial integrity.

    However, thousands of ordinary Malians have remained sceptical about assurances that the north of the country is safe, our correspondent says.

    The Timbuktu car bombing is likely to vindicate their view and further delay the return of civil servants who are needed if schools, town halls and clinics are to reopen, she says.

    Malian army spokesman Capt Samba Coulibaly said the suicide bombing took place at a road block manned by Malian soldiers, just before a French checkpoint, Reuters news agency reports.

    “We are mopping up to see if there are any other attackers in the area,” he is quoted as saying.

    French army spokesman Colonel Thierry Burkhard said French and Malian forces had repelled an attempt by militants to infiltrate Timbuktu’s airport on Thursday morning, Reuters reports.

    There were no French casualties, he added.

    France currently has 4,000 troops in Mali, backed by thousands of Malian, Chadian and other African forces.

    Their military campaign has focused in recent weeks on the remote Ifoghas mountains near the Algeria border, where the militants are believed to have fled after losing control of the main cities.

    However, there were two suicide bombings in the city of Gao last month.

    On Tuesday the French army said 15 Islamist fighters had been killed in recent days in Gao, and a large cache of weapons seized.

    At least 26 Chadian and five French soldiers had died in combat in Mali since their deployment, AFP reports.

    France hopes to begin withdrawing its forces from Mali at the end of April.

     

  • Suicide mission

    Suicide mission

    • Lagos State govt should outlaw hanging on moving trains by commuters

    Lagos State House of Assembly has joined other well-meaning Nigerians to call for appropriate sanctions against those that hang on train coaches on Lagos routes. The assembly raised the alarm against allowing passengers to indiscriminately hang on moving trains, describing the trend as dangerous and an embarrassment to the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), and the host Lagos State.

    Members of the assembly at a plenary last week called on the state commissioner for transport, the Management of NRC and the Nigeria Police, Railway Command, to arrest the ugly trend, to avoid likely loss of lives and limbs to accidents caused by such behaviour.

    Hanging on moving trains has become trendy among many young commuters on the very busy Lagos to Ogun State rail route. Observing this macabre form of transportation can be heart-rending, as young men recklessly hang on any piece of metal on the body of the trains as they speed along the routes, giving the impression that life is of little value or easily replaceable. The NRC had threatened to prosecute those involved in such illegal act for attempted suicide. Indeed, sometime last year, the corporation claimed that those arrested were undergoing trial for breaking the law. The corporation also warned people without tickets against free ride on trains.

    We appreciate that hanging on trains may partly be a sign that there is more demand for services than supply on that route, or even a sign of economic deprivation and poverty. To stem the ugly tide, there is need for an increase in the number of coaches, and the number of times that the train runs, especially at peak hours. Where there is increase in the number of coaches and routes, the NRC can reduce the cost offered to commuters based on the economy of scale.

    The corporation may note the speed with which commuters embraced the resuscitated rail services, as a sign of the potential huge market waiting to be tapped. Indeed, rail services are one cheap and efficient system of mass transit, and the long-suffering masses of the country can do with an efficient service to reduce the pain in the country.

    The current dangerous rides also expose the failure of regulation and law enforcement by the railway corporation and the police. We doubt whether passengers who did not pay would be allowed to ride freely, albeit dangerously, if the services are rendered by a private company. The corporation must therefore rise up to the challenge of rendering efficient and secure services. One way forward is to equip and effectively mobilise the railway police, to combat this dangerous activity. The corporation may need to weigh whether to bring in private security or fund its police command, to arrest accidents that can expose it to scandals and legal liability for negligence. A stop of such dangerous rides will likely save scores of lives of young Nigerians, engaging in stunts, in the name of free ride.

    While the illegal passengers are exposing their lives to danger, they constitute a nuisance to regular commuters and the general public. Their conduct, as rightly observed by the Lagos lawmakers, constitutes a serious embarrassment to the image of the Lagos State government. As such, there is need for the state to join hands with the police and the corporation to check the trend. The reasons offered by the corporation that these passengers board the trains after their departure from regular stations is no justification to allow this public ridicule of the transport system of an emerging mega city like Lagos.

     

  • A governor’s ‘suicide’ flight

    A governor’s ‘suicide’ flight

    It is no longer news that Danbaba Suntai, the second-term governor of Taraba State, north-east of Nigeria, was involved in an air crash last Thursday. The crash, which occurred in Yola, Adamawa State on the eve of the Muslim annual festival of Eid-el-Kabir, involved the governor who flew the private light aircraft alongside others, including three of his top aides.

    A pharmacist by profession, Suntai crashed with his chopper near the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) depot, along Numan-Yola Road around 7.45 pm on the fateful day just 38 miles from the Yola Airport. The first set of people who arrived at the crash site were Fulani herdsmen. Officers and men of the Nigerian Air Force NAF’s 75 Strike Force Command in Yola later arrived at the scene of the crash and recovered the victims from the Fulani herdsmen.

    Suntai is said to be a keen pilot who obtained his licence from the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, NCAT, Zaria, Kaduna State in 2010. When he had a successful solo run on an aircraft at NCAT in August 2010, he was reportedly bathed with water as a symbol of his integration into the flying club. One of the national newspapers boldly displayed this initiation photograph on the front page in its last Friday’s edition. Captioned “For the love of flying”, the photograph showed Suntai dressed in a brown trousers and purple-stripped white long-sleeved shirt with a long tie to match being poured a whole pail of water by Bin Na’Allah, a member of the House of Representatives.

    In another newspaper report, stunned journalists who sighted the governor at the Zaria event asked him to comment on his first solo flight. The governor said: “I feel excited and grateful to God for the opportunity to fly my first solo flight. Personally, right from the onset in my life, I chose aviation as a career and pursued it. I was able to obtain admission to Mbrevidaila Aeronautical University in Florida, but coming from a very poor background, I could not sponsor myself in the school, so I started seeking scholarship, but I couldn’t obtain one.

    “So that was how I ended up in the pharmacy profession. However, aviation has continued to bite me in my blood. And when I learnt that I could even fly at my age, I decided to come over here (NCAT, Zaria) to see the rector and inform him about my ambition and he enrolled me. And after some training, today, I was able to undergo this solo flight. So, in my blood, I have it as a passion.”

    Sunta’s incurable love for aircraft and flying is so deep and passionate that he radiates it everywhere. When he became the governor of Taraba State in 2007, he met a partially completed airport in Jalingo, which was started by his predecessor in office. He immediately set about rehabilitating it at a cost estimated at about N9 billion. The construction of the airport was later abandoned following the order of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria, FAAN, who observed some ‘runway defects’ at the airport. Suntai’s government later announced that it would construct a new airport which will be sited on the Mambila Plateau.

    Though the Jalingo airport was not good enough, the governor was said to have acquired a small aircraft during his first term and added yet another one to the fleet only last year. Even though none of them could still land at the Jalingo airport, the Suntai administration acquired a helicopter for which the governor built a heliport in Government House.

    Since becoming governor, he hardly travelled by road. Most of his trips to local government councils within his state and to his village, Suntai, in Bali Council, are always undertaken through the use of chopper, which many stakeholders in the state have continuously criticized. He is said to have also built an airstrip in Suntai to accommodate his penchant for moving around in choppers.

    It is all about passion, passion and passion. Here was a man whose background was so poor he could not afford aviation training to become a pilot, a career of first choice. He went into pharmacy instead. But the fire of aviation that had ignited in his mind continued to burn. It was like an everlasting glow. When he could no longer resist this, he dashed to NCAT, Zaria and poured his mind out to the rector who wholeheartedly encouraged him by enlisting him to train as a pilot. He was told that age was not a barrier since he had a passion for the profession as if all that was needed to become a pilot was to express a mere passion for it. Besides, the money that was hard to come by in yesteryear was now at his beck and call as governor.

    Think about the colossal sum of money involved in building and rebuilding airports, construction of airstrips in Suntai village, construction of heliport at the Government House in Jalingo, buying of light aircraft and helicopter and so on. What picture does this portray? How much is sunk into this? How will this boost the economy of the state and increase the state’s internally generated revenue, IGR? As far as I am concerned, Taraba is one of the poorest states in the country. Although the state is blessed with abundant natural resources, a good environment and all that, harnessing the resources of the state towards optimum economic growth would be more like it, rather than this “passionate drain pipe” created by a flying enthusiast of a governor.

    Now we are being called upon to offer prayers. From the wreckage of the chopper featured in some of the national newspapers at the weekend, Suntai and the other victims of the crash will need tons and tons of prayers to see them through their present predicament. All of them emerged from the wreckage with varying degrees of life-threatening injuries even though attempts were made to paint the picture as less grievous.

    Remember that those who first arrived at the scene of the crash last Thursday were Fulani herdsmen who had successfully retrieved the victims from the belly of the aircraft before the arrival of the NAF rescue team. And nobody is sure whether the rescue team had any specialist in their midst or even the right medical equipment for the evacuation from the crash site. Also, it is not quite clear if all the necessary precautions for such evacuation were observed.

    And whilst we are at it, maybe we should ask a few salient questions about Governor Suntai and the ill-fated chopper ride. Was he adequately trained in night vision or instrument landing which he will need to rely on for flying at night? How many hours’ flight does he have to his credit as a pilot? Who was the co-pilot with him in that aircraft?

    My take is that with the distance from Jalingo to Yola, he could have possibly strayed off course, relying on radio communication for the flight until he finally sighted the airport. And of course, night had set in; in which case, he needed to rely on instruments in the aircraft to land. Anything could have gone wrong during the flight – poor knowledge, poor visibility, heavy wind on the route, absence of a co-pilot and all that.

    We have even been inundated with the fact that there was a security report against the governor flying that aircraft. That warning could have been ignored. And now the consequence of that is the seemingly bad case we have on our hands. We have been asked to pray, and pray we shall. But we must pause and ask: was this accident preventable? If this is the case, it smacks more like a suicide flight!

     

  • Suicide bomber kills eight in Kaduna church

    Suicide bomber kills eight in Kaduna church

    ALL was normal and quiet. It was time for the sacrament – the blessing of the bread and wine in commemoration of the Last Supper – by the parish priest. Time was about 8.30am.

    A young man driving a Honda CRV, a rosary dangling on his neck, approached the church’s gate. He was turned back. Pretending to be leaving, he reversed the vehicle. Then, he stepped heavily on the throttle to send the vehicle into full speed and rammed it into the children’s section at St. Rita’s Catholic Church, Ugwan Yero in Mallai, Kaduna.

    A deafening noise, crashing bricks and a dusty skyline. Then some calm and time to attend to the dead – 8 – and the injured – scores.

    Among the injured was the Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Bonni.

    An eyewitness, Ishaku James, said: “There are so many injured people who have been taken to hospitals, like Garkuwa Hospital, Saint Gerald Catholic Hospital, Army 44 Reference Hospital and Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital.

    “We are still looking for the Reverend father; he sustained serious injuries on the face but we don’t know which hospital he has been taken to. We cannot say for now whether he survived the attack or not. We don’t know where he is now, but, initially, we took him to Garkuwa General Hospital.

    “The priest was saying ‘it is well, it is well, it is well’ while his face was covered with blood. The suicide bomber used Honda CRV Jeep. The bomb blast happened at about 8.30 am when the Parish Priest was blessing the sacrament.

    “Even if there were security men, they couldn’t have stopped the bomber because he came driving with force and crashed through the fence of the church, and not through the gate of the church. The car used by the bomber got burnt, and the body of the bomber was dangling against the wall of the church.

    Miss Jacinta Oko, who was also affected, said: “We just heard the loud sound of the bomb blast when they were preparing to take Holy Communion. But before I knew what was happening, I found myself on the ground.

    “I can say that so many people died because it affected the side where the choir members were sitting. The service was about faith and healing. The Priest preached about God’s possibility. He said with faith, everything is possible.

    “He gave us the story of King Solomon; how God healed him. He said whatever we do, we should hold onto our faith, and that everything will be alright. So the mass was okay. He was about giving communion when the blast happened.”

    Thirty-year-old Veronica Johnson told our correspondent that they were in the middle of the service when suddenly she heard a loud explosion.

    Veronica, who was with her two children at the St. Gerard Catholic Hospital, said: “We were in the church, and it was during the consecration when everybody was kneeling down and praying, and all of a sudden, we heard the deafening sound of the bomb blast. When I looked back, I saw a jeep that forced itself through the wall of the church fence from behind into the church premises.

    “The blast occurred near where the choristers were sitting. So many people died, and so many people were injured. I saw some people lying down flat within the church premises. All of my four children were in the church when the thing happened, but my husband was not in the church. They all sustained injuries. One is just four months old; I am 30 years old from Benue State.”

    St. Gerald’s Hospital spokesman Sunday John Ali said “We are managing 14 injured persons who were brought here from the church incident. The parishioners said they took the parish priest to a hospital, but not St. Gerald. Right now, we do not know where he is.”

    There were reports that three bodies and 35 injured persons were taken to the 44 Army Reference Hospital. Four bodies and over 88 injured persons to Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital; 14 injured persons were taken to Saint Gerard Catholic Hospital.

    The report also said one body and 14 injured persons were taken to Garkuwa Hospital, three injured persons were taken to Giwa Hospital and two injured persons were taken to Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital.

    An eyewitness, who identified himself simply as Andrew, said the lone bomber was wearing a cross chain disguising himself as a Christian driving a Sport Utility Vehicle (SUV) with a tinted glass.

    Some of the church securitymen were quoted as saying that they tried to stop the bomber from entering the church compound on the grounds that no vehicle was allowed to park inside the church premises. “The man came and we tried to stop him, he pretended as if he was reversing and all of a sudden, manoeuvred his way on a high speed and rammed through the church fence into the building.

    A loud explosion was the next thing we heard.”

    One of the Choir leaders, Mr Ezekiel Daniang, recalled the attack. He said: “As usual, we sing in between mass activities. I had just finished conducting one of such interval songs and I left to attend to another function within the church, when, all of a sudden, I heard a loud sound.

    “The people that were mostly affected are my choir members and the children, although some other members of the church like those on the altar and the priest were also affected, two persons died instantly including the suicide bomber, but there were over 150 others injured with some in critical condition right now” he said.

    An altar boy, Emmanuel Thomas, said the intervention of the Parish Priest saved him. “If not for the parish priest who drew me away, I would have suffered more injuries than I did. When we heard the first sound, the priest thought it was a spark of light. Then suddenly a heavy blast occurred, crushing the wall of the church and people started running. The next place I found myself was in this hospital”.

    There was tension across the city as the news of the explosion spread. Some youth embarked on a reprisal, but the timely intervention of security agents saved what would have been another round of bloodletting.

    Churches hurriedly closed services and sent their members home. Shops and markets were also hurriedly closed. Security officials started patrolling the city to stop any breakdown of law and oders.

    Heavily armed security personnel were seen patrolling the streets to prevent any possible breakdown of law and order.

    Apart from the church whose building was partially destroyed, many other houses were either destroyed or had their roofs blown off.

    Christian youths took to the streets with machetes and sticks after the blast, targeting those they believed to be Muslims as anger again boiled over due to repeated church bombings in recent months.

    A mob beat a motorcycle taxi driver near the church, then put his bike on top of him before dousing him with petrol and setting him on fire, an AFP correspondent who saw the violence said. Two other bloodied bodies, apparently killed by the mob, were seen near the church.

    A rescue official, on condition of anonymity, also spoke of the man being burnt and said rescuers could not save him because the mob was too violent.

    The mob also attacked an ambulance in the ensuing violence, but there was no indication that rescuers were wounded.

    The Kaduna State Government called for calm and urged the people to ignore rumours of reprisal for the bombing.

    In a statement Mr. Reuben Buhari, the Senior Special Assistant (Media) to Governor Patrick Yakowa, said anyone caught spreading such false information would be made to face ‘the full wrath of the law’.

    He condoled with those who lost their loved ones and properties in the blast.

    Buhari stressed that the security agencies were on top of the situation and assured residents of adequate security.

    “So far we have eight dead and 145 injured from the church blast,” Musa Ilallah, regional coordinator for the National Emergency Management Agency, told AFP, noting that his death toll included the suspected bomber.

    NEMA’s Kaduna Zonal Public Relations Officer, Aliyu Muhammed, said bodies of the victims had been deposited at various hospitals in the city.

    According to NEMA, four of the bodied were deposited at Barau Dikko Specialists Hospital, three at 44 Military Hospital, while one has been deposited at the Garkuwa Specialist Hospital.

    The statement said 81 injured persons were receiving treatment at Barau Dikko Specialist Hospital, while 35 others were being treated at 44 Military Hospital.

    It said that 15 injured persons were also receiving treatment at St. Gerrad’s Hospital with five among them in critical condition.

    Spokesman of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) Yushau Shuaib, said: “A number of casualties have been evacuated to hospitals.” He confirmed that “the incident was suspected to be triggered by a suicide bomber in a car.”

    There are conflicting information regarding the number of the dead.

    Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Kaduna, the Most Rev. Matthew Ndagoso, said only four people died, adding that the number of those injured were still being collated from five hospitals.

    The Bishop said the Parish Priest, Rev. Fr. Bonni, was receiving treatment at the Multi-clinic and was in a stable condition. He described the attack as most inhuman.

    Rev. Ndagoso said: “It could have been worst. I have gone round all the hospitals where those injured were taken to in Kaduna. The saddest part of it is the children that where affected.

    “The impact was at the children section of the church. All the five hospitals I visited so far, most of the victims are children. You began to wonder that a human being in his full senses could do this kind of thing.

    “I think that people who can do this kind of thing need sympathy. I am convinced that they are out of their own mind. I know it is a very difficult and painful thing, but my message to the Christian community is that difficult situations do not make us less Christian, no matter how difficult the situations are.

    “In the same vein, difficult situations do not make us less human. We remain human and even in the most difficult and trying situations. This is my call, to Christians and Catholic Youth: never and never should they retaliate. I urge them not to retaliate because two wrongs can never make a right.

    “I am convinced that there are few individuals in this country who really want to plunge this country in to a difficult situation and they will stop at nothing. So, my call to Christians and Muslims is that the vast majority of us who believe in this country should never give them the chance, no matter what they do; we must ensure that we shame them”.

    The blast created tension across the city as some youths went on a reprisal, but security men were immediately sent into the streets to maintain law and order.

    Commissioner of Police Olufemi Adenaike, who visited the scene of the blast, urged residents to be calm, adding that security operatives were on top of the situation. He said he could not ascertain the number of the dead.

    He said soldiers and the police as well as other sister security agencies were deployed in the area to ensure safety.

  • Landlord commits suicide in Enugu

    The body of a man, who was said to be a landlord, has been found hanging in his room at New Haven, Enugu.

    The police identified him as Chinedu Eziobu of 67 Chime Avenue, New Haven, Enugu.

    A police bulletin by the spokesman of the command, Ebere Amaraizu, said one of the deceased’s tenants, Joseph Bassey, had complained that his landlord had not been seen since Saturday.

    The police broke open Eziobu’s door and found him hanging from the ceiling.

    The police said they found a suicide note in the room.

    It reads: “Ben, my brother, gave black plastic bag for Mr. Nwafor and the black plastic bag with its contents is to be handed over to his brother, Benjamin Eziobu.”

    Amaraizu said the police have begun investigation into the death, adding that the body has been deposited at the Eastern Medical Centre mortuary for autopsy.

  • Mother of twins commits suicide, jumps into Osun river

    A few days after she was delivered of a set of twins, Mrs Shekinat Abdurazaq, 27, allegedly committed suicide on Wednesday when she jumped into the Osun River in Ede.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the incident occurred at about 3.30 p.m. on the Osun River Bridge on the Oke Gada Road.

    NAN learnt that the woman, who hailed from Ede in Osun, delivered the twins 11 days ago.

    An eyewitness account revealed that shortly before Abdurazaq jumped into the river, she reportedly prayed and gave alms to beggars around the bridge head.

    One of the eyewitnesses, who identified himself as Selia Mojeed, told NAN that people did not know that Abdurazaq wanted to commit suicide, else they would have prevented her from doing so.

    Although efforts to speak with her husband failed, it was said that the woman had no outstanding problems with her spouse, family or neighbours before the incident.

    Efforts by sympathisers and passersby to rescue the woman failed as she was said to have drowned immediately.

    Shortly after the incident, her husband who also attempted to jump into the river was prevented from doing so by onlookers.

    NAN reports that the police later whisked away the deceased’s husband and placed him under safe custody at the Police “A” Division in Ede.

    Contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs Folasade Odoro, confirmed the incident.