Jos Blasts: families, friends struggle to identify remains of loved ones

May 24, 2014

Selina, Angela on sick bed and A sympahiser who fainted

As the smoke from the recent bomb attack in Jos gradually dies down, there are many, badly affected by the tragedy, who would live with the scar for a long time, writes Jude Owuamanam

Tuesday, May 20, 2014, started like every other day for many residents of Jos, capital of Plateau State. For Awalu, a 23-year-old cripple, the day held plenty of promises. On mornings like this, he pedalled his bicycle from his Gangere home all the way to Terminus Market, in the heart of the city, to solicit for alms from kind-hearted individuals.

His physical incapacity means he cannot be gainfully employed and so it is through the benevolence of passersby that he survives. He had every reason to be optimistic that Tuesday would be better than every other day.

But hours later, it was a completely different story. Hope of a blissful day at the market had been swallowed by a tragedy never envisaged. Two bombs planted inside a Fiat and Toyota Siena cars went off in quick succession in the crowded Terminus Market, killing scores of people and wounding dozens more. The bombs had been primed to explode when the market was at its peak. By the time the thick, dark fumes ignited by the bombs died down a little, Awalu was gone.

Together with several others, his charred remains littered the entire place. A few metres away, his bicycle, with which he made it to the market in search of daily survival, waits on him. Awalu will not return alive.

Thirty-four year-old Bassey Akpan was on her way home from work in the Rayfield area when she suddenly realised that she needed to fix one arm of her glasses at the Terminus Market. She called her mother to inform her of the idea. Not a big deal, the senior Akpan waited patiently for the return of her daughter. But when news of the bomb attacks filtered into the air and Bassey was not forthcoming after almost four hours since she spoke with her mother over the phone, anxiety set it. Everyone in the family became restless. A search began in earnest. Bassey’s mangled body was found among several others at the Plateau Specialist Hospital. The blast took a promising lady and the hope of an entire household with it. She is among a long list whose visit to the popular market on that fateful Tuesday handed pains and anguish.

Adiza Mohammed Nyam, 25, is lucky to remain alive. She had concluded her grocery shopping at the market and was set to go home when suddenly everything went blank. She woke up 24 hours later in a hospital to see parts of her body in bandage. Nyam suffered severe burns on her hands and other areas of her body.

“Immediately I heard the loud noise, I could not hear anything,” she told Saturday Punch. “I only saw myself in the hospital the next day.”

Also writhing in pains on her hospital bed is Ruquyatu Abubakar Mohammed. Her left leg was badly affected by the blast. Currently in bandages, her son sat next to her when our correspondent visited the ward where she was being treated.

“My mother is a victim of the unfortunate circumstance,” the younger Mohammed said. “She was just passing by the scene when one of the blasts went off. When she could not come home, we started looking for her until we found her in this hospital,” he said.

Another victim, Selina, was by the road side where she usually sold roasted corns when the bombs went off. A native of Shendam in Shendam Local Government Council of the state, she could barely utter a word on her hospital bed when our reporter walked onto her. She told Saturday Punch that her survival was a miracle.

Thirty-year-old Angela is also wailing in pains. Another lucky survivor of the latest horror in Jos, she is lying critically injured at the hospital.

Following the Tuesday tragedy, many hospitals and even morgues in the city have since become a Mecca of sort for concerned relatives coming to check on their injured family members or still searching for those missing. At the three major hospitals – Jos University Teaching Hospital (new and old sites), Bingham University Teaching Hospital and Plateau State Specialists Hospital, relatives of the injured, missing and even the dead were seen wearing gloomy faces.

The situation was worse at the mortuaries of the various hospitals as friends and family members trampled on one another as they scavenged for the remains of their loved ones. At the Plateau State Specialist Hospital, a list of survivors was placed conspicuously at various points in the hospital. People were seen thronging the notice boards to see if their relatives and friends were among the lucky escapees.

Among the badly affected group in the market are the Igbo traders. Mostly dealing in curtains, shoes, cassettes and recorders, the blasts left crushing footprints in this section of the market. Hawkers and women displaying wares along the road were not spared – a huge ball of fire emanating from the explosion, swallowed them.

President General of Igbo Community Association, Chief Jonah Ezekwueme, led other executives and members of the group from hospital to hospital to identify their own.

“You know that it is our people that would be mostly affected because of the place where the bombs exploded, especially the first one,” he told our reporter. “So we are going round with heads and leaders of town associations and village groups as well as chairmen of the various states in the South East to identify our members trapped in this unfortunate incident.

“So far, we have identified 17 with nine dead and eight injured. We will continue with the exercise until we identify our members who might have been victims of the blasts.”

Authorities of the University of Jos and Federal School of Medical Laboratory Technology, who have campuses close to the blast site, are still taking stock of what the blast left them with. UNIJOS, so far, has lost seven of its final year students of the Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences to the incident. The students were caught up in the blast while heading home after the day’s lectures. Visibly shaken,Vivian Eke, a course mate and friend of some of the dead students, could not hold back tears as she helped identify her late colleagues from the heap of mangled bodies at the Plateau Specialist Hospital.

Assistant Registrar, Publications and Protocol of the school, Steve Otowo, said that they would conduct a head count, especially for the department to ascertain the number of affected students. He said that as of Wednesday, only two students had been identified.

“I am in touch with the presidents of the Students Union Government and particularly the class head of the students. We will meet to try and identify anybody involved. We are careful not to release names so that parents and guardians will not get agitated.”

Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Olivia Dazyam, while giving update on the incident in the capital on Wednesday, said that the state had taken up the bills of all those injured.

The commissioner said that at the Bingham University Teaching Hospital, there were 30 dead and six injured; while at Our Lady of Apostle Hospital, there were 10 injured but no dead.

At the Plateau State Specialist Hospital, she disclosed that 35 injured people were receiving attention, while there were 44 dead bodies there. According to her, JUTH has 45 injured, 25 dead, while another injured six and one dead body were at two clinics in the state.

While the state government and police authorities stick with these figures, accounts from eyewitnesses and independent findings by our correspondent strongly indicate that the number of the dead and injured is far higher. If proper medical attention is not given to the likes of Nyam and Mohammed, that list could further swell in the coming days. At the moment, traders, victims and relatives of the dead and missing are learning to get over the shock while the city of Jos, hit by pockets of violence and bloodbaths in recent years, gradually bounces back to life. The scars could indeed take a long time to heal.