How My father was killed like an animal, says son of a victim of Jos Bomb Blasts

Relatives of victims of Thursday evening Jos bomb blasts refused to be consoled yesterday amid wailing and murmuring as they thronged the Plateau State Specialist Hospital mortuary to identify corpses of their loved ones and pick them for burial.

“See how my daddy was killed like an animal by Boko Haram”, Chinedu, son of one of the victims, Mr Basil Alag­wei, lamented as he picked the charred body of his father from the hospital. All efforts to calm him and others down failed as he again screamed, “so all the plans we have to execute together this December are all gone.”

Basil Alagwei, father of five, who owned an auto spare parts shop on Dilimi street, had closed for the day and was about to cross the road when the bomb exploded. The right side of his face was shattered. Same with his thighs. He died instantly at the scene of the blast.

The police in Plateau yesterday confirmed 16 dead and 14 injured in the blast. According to the Police Public Re­lations Officer, DSP Abu Emmanuel, two female suicide bombers armed with Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), had disguised themselves and went to the terminus rounda­bout where they detonated the bombs few seconds apart. This claimed the lives of the victims. The injured persons were taken to various hospitals while the dead were taken to the mortuary. He said no building or vehicle was destroyed.

But at Our Ladies of Apostle Hospital, the programme manager, Mr. Patrick Osu confirmed nine dead and 11 in­jured. At Plateau Specialist Hospital, the Chairman, Medical Advisory Council, Dr. Filmon Golwa said 30 people were brought in for treatment while they received 10 dead bodies. Another person, who was operated upon in the midnight, died Friday morning. At the Jos University Teaching Hospi­tal, two of the victims were receiving treatment when Satur­day Sun visited. This brings the total number of those who died to 20 while 42 were receiving treatment.

One of the casualties of the blast was a mother of six, Madam Jummai Audu was hawking garden eggs and cucumber when she was caught in the blast around Yan kwoli ( where cosmetics are sold) at the time of the blast.

The deceased niece, Naomi Jacob told Saturday Sun that when she failed to return home Thursday evening, the fam­ily went round the hospitals to look for her and discovered her corpse at Plateau Specialist Hospital mortuary. Mrs. Audu left a one year, three months old baby.

One of the suvivors, Mrs Aminat Idowu, a trader in cow skin, who was receiving treatment at the Plateau Special­ist Hospital lamented that all her fellow traders who were around her at the time of the blast are dead.

She said she was alive only by the grace of God. She said she was not killed because she was standing, packing her remaining wares to leave for the day when the blast oc­curred. “I had already packed my things and given them to a wheelbarrow boy to drop for me at home. I was stand­ing packing the few things that remained when I heard the blast. All the people seated close to me died instantly. I did not know I was wounded by the side of my stomach until I wanted to support myself and rested my hand on the wound. I noticed I was touching my flesh and was already soaked in blood. I started running and shouting that somebody should help me. It was then I was picked and taken to a nearby hos­pital where the splinter that entered my body was removed. I had a cut on the leg. I was treated there before I was moved to the Plateau Hospital where they said I will receive other treatments. But since I came I was only given a pint of drip and nothing else”, she lamented.

Dr.Golwa explained to Saturday Sun that the treatment was slow because health workers were on strike. He said af­ter the bomb blast on Thursday, he spoke to the chairman of the Joint Heath Staff Union ( JOHESU) who promised that the union would call off the strike for one week to enable the workers to attend to the injured. “We are still expecting them to resume work”, he stated.

He said the hospital has been relying on its blood bank to attend to the injured and appealed to members of the public to come and donate blood before it runs short of supply.

Chairman of the State Emergency Management Com­mittee, Alhassan Barde disclosed that members of the com­mittee were going round to update their records. He said all information about the causalities would be released by the police. He said the situation this time was better than that of May, this year as less casualties were recorded.

Meanwhile, the Senator representing Plateau North in the National Assembly, Senator Gyang Nyam Pwajok, has de­scribed the bomb blast as “very painful.”

In a statement by his media officer, Mr. Chuwang Dung, Senator Pwajok expressed grief over the loss of precious lives, stating that he was devastated by the frequency and brutality of terrorist attacks on innocent people.

The senator, who is also the gubernatorial flag bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state, said that terrorists were carrying out the attacks to create instability for their ulterior motives.

While calling on Nigerians to be more vigilant, he ex­pressed grief with the relatives of those killed in the explo­sion, and prayed for eternal peace for those who lost their lives and early recovery of the injured.