A few of those who were lucky to be alive when a bomb exploded at a popular shopping mall in Abuja on Wednesday with new reports saying 22 died and over 50 injured, have explained how they narrowly escaped death and thanked God for sparing their lives.
It’s such a bad situation that you won’t even pray for your enemy to experience it when you read their stories. They said the flames from the explosion were peeling people’s skin, bomb explosions are that terrible. May God put an end to it. Their stories below.
Taxi driver cheats death
A taxi driver, who identified himself as Malachy Odo to Vanguard, said he was caught up in the midst of the ravaging fire after the bomb exploded at the car park of Emab Plaza.
He said: “I had arrived at the plaza in my cab minutes earlier. After the last passenger alighted from the cab, I was reversing when I heard the explosion. My car went up in flames, and I struggled to pass through the window and in the process my left hand caught fire. As I was running for my dear life, broken glasses pierced my feet. I was later rushed by rescuers to Maitama General Hospital.”
Another survivor, Mrs Mary Andrew, said she was lying on the ground beside her groundnut tray, while waiting for buyers at the entrance of Emab Plaza, when the blast occurred.
According to her: “I was lying down when the bomb exploded, and my baby was also with me. After the blast, I discovered that three of my fellow groundnut sellers were dead. I was very lucky, I was not hurt, and I thank God for saving my life.”
I was covered with broken glasses —Olasupo
Samuel Olasupo, who sells and repairs mobile phones at Emab plaza had this to say: “I was about to take step out of my shop to the gate to buy corn, when the bomb exploded. I was thrown to the floor and my body was pierced by pieces of glass. When I recovered from the impact of the blast, I gave glory to God.”
He said the bomb-laden car was said to have been parked at the entrance of the plaza for more than 30 minutes with nobody inside.
Another eyewitness who spoke to Vanguard identified himself as Joseph Okonkwo. Okonkwo who said he is a journalist said his office was located at Emab Plaza. He said he writes for Legis Magazine based in Abuja.
Said he: “As I was entering Emab Plaza, yesterday (Wednesday), I walked past a particular shop I normally go to which is close to the gate. I later saw the person I went to visit and discussed with him after which I suddenly heard a big bang. A lot of things flew into the air. I saw a lot of smoke.
“I began to run and when I was about to jump a fence, I saw some people whose skin had been peeled by the heat generated by the blast. They were trying to jump too. Everybody ran to the back side because the explosion occurred at the gate. Some people who were close to me were affected by the blast. The impact of the blast is still disturbing me. I was psychologically affected but physically okay.”
And in Daniel’s case his 24-year old cousin who works at a pharmaceutical shop in the plaza is still missing;
Daniel Itodo said he was still searching for his cousin, 24-year-old Bassey Bassey, who hails from Cross River State. Bassey, who was said to be the first child of his parents was working with a pharmaceutical shop at the plaza.
“I was at home when I heard about the bomb blast at Wuse II, and I remembered that my cousin, Bassey Bassey was at the shopping plaza. I rushed to the pharmacy where he was working at Emab plaza, near Banex. I was told that about three minutes before the bomb blast, my cousin left with a customer that came to the pharmacy to buy some drugs. Since then his phone has been switched off and he is nowhere to be found. I have gone to University of Abuja Teaching Hospital and National Hospital, where I saw health officials attending to some injured people brought to them, and I learnt four persons were in the intensive care unit. But I was not allowed to have access to them. I went to Garki Hospital and I could not see him there.”
He continued: “I went to Maitama General Hospital where I saw up to 10 dead bodies. Four could not be identified because the bodies were charred. One of the bodies was without a head, with intestines packed on one side.
“The parents are yet to be informed because we have not seen him dead or alive. We are still searching for him. I will meet with the manager of the pharmacy to know whether the customer was alive or both of them died and for the management of the pharmacy to tell us the exact story about our brother’s whereabouts.
