As the death toll in Thursday’s bomb blast in Nyanya continues to rise, relatives of the victims have called on the federal government to adopt a new strategy in its quest to end the recurrent security threat in the country.
At the mortuary of the Asokoro General Hospital, Hajiya Samirah Abubakar Atiku, who went to claim the body of her younger sister that died in the bomb explosion, said she was unable to consistently look at the mangled body of her sister. “The government should do something about the security situation in the country. This is something that used to happen in the northern states; now it has reached Abuja. We are no longer safe anywhere in Nigeria,” she said.
She went further to narrate how they have been asked to take a photograph of the deceased to the Asokoro Police Station for verification before they could claim the corpse. “We are waiting for the photograph to arrive from Gombe, our home state,” she said.
Another relative at the mortuary, Mr Chukwudi Okoye, charged the government to rise up to the security challenge facing it even as the insurgents seem to be out-smarting it.
He said that his brother, whom he simply identified as Kenneth, died that Thursday night. “I don’t know how to relate this story to his wife,” he said. He regretted ever returning home that night, insisting that if Kenneth had joined him and others to move some steps forward before the blast, he might have received only minor injuries.
At the Maitama General Hospital, Mrs Angela Effiong, the hospital’s secretary, revealed that four victims were brought to the hospital but that one was referred to the National Hospital because he had serious burns.
Mrs Effiong took reporters to the Accident Emergency unit of the hospital where they met with some of the victims. There, a victim, Hadiza, narrated how she regained consciousness after she was caught in the blast, only to realise that her right leg was completely gone.
Hadiza said she and her friend were waiting to board a vehicle going to Area 1: “The first vehicle we saw was already filled up. My friend suggested that we move forward a little. Beside us was a white car with nobody inside and, before I could get to my friend, the explosion went off and that was my last moment with her.”
She said she immediatedly fell to the ground and became unconscious for some minutes. ‘When I regained consciousnes, I couldn’t stand up again. Then, I noticed that my right leg was no more.”
There were pieces of sharp objects like iron and glass that penetrated her skin before she was taken to the hospital by the police.
Meanwhile, officials at the Nyanya General Hospital have said that about 29 people were brought to the hospital immediately after the bomb blast.
Mr Joseph Ogbeche who survived the explosion but is currently receiving treatment at the hospital said that some people died at the hospital while some others had been transferred to other hospitals.
He said that he was going inside the town with his friend when the bomb blast happened. The explosion threw them to the ground and rendered them unconscious for some minutes. “I was able to stand up. I saw that everybody was now running for their lives but I couldn’t run myself because I had sustianed injuries all over my body,” he said.
He thanked his family and friends who had stood by him since that night but said no government official had so far visited.
As at the time of this report, there were 34 injured and 12 corpses at Asokoro General Hospital while four and 29 injured were at Maitama and Nyanya hospitals respectively
However, FCT officials said that exact casualty figures were uncertain.
But the evacuation of the casualties was quite orderly. LEADERSHIP gathered that they were first taken to Asokoro General Hospital, a few kilometeres away from the scene of the blast, from where they were taken to other hospitals in the FCT.
For hours Asokoro barred entry to its premises, locking out families and journalists. Its medical director, Dr Ahmadu Abubakar, said, “We don’t need media here now. You can’t be here.”
A police officer standing at the gates cited “security reasons”.
And an information desk run by NEMA to help families trace their relatives was expected to open Friday morning.
FCT officials told LEADERSHIP that at least 30 people injured in Thursday evening’s bomb blast are being treated for trauma at Asokoro Hospital.
FCT health secretary Ademola Onokamaiye gave the tally late Thursday night. He disclosed that 20 more beds were freed up at three hospitals in Wuse, Gwarimpa and Maitama to take in the injured.
Nine out of the victims were taken to the National Hospital, which also received six corpses.
At Maitama General Hospital, one dead victim was taken to the morgue while four injured were being treated.
FCT minister Bala Mohammed, who visited the injured at the hospital hours after the incident, said the territory was working with emergency services to lessen “the intensity of impact” of the attack.
Meanwhile, the National Hospital has said that, unlike after the previous bomb blast, casualties from Thursday’s are not mutilated but identifiable.
The hospital’s information management director, Mr Tayo Haastrup, told LEADERSHIP that some of the victims had burns but they were not as serious as the first incident.
He said, “ These ones all came with the parts of their bodies, not like the other one where some came without some parts of their bodies. We don’t have any serious effect on these ones and therefore they can easily be identified.
“The corpses are not burnt beyond recognition; one can see them and recognize them.”
On why the hospital received only nine of the injured victims, she said: “Don’t also forget that we still have about 15 to 20 victims of the previous bomb blast in the ward. So, because of insufficient space to accommodate all of them, we quickly sent two to the Federal Staff Hospital.”
According to Haastrup, “As I am talking to you now, we have about nine of them in the National Hospital and the six corpses are still there and they are yet to be identified and we are still looking forward to the relations to please come and identify them.
“We don’t just release corpses to the relations; it has to involve the police and other law enforcement agents. The police have been here and we have been talking to them because we want to make sure that the relations come to identify them and we release them with the collaboration of the police and other agencies to make sure we give the corpses to the right owners. That is what we have for now. But I will also tell you that the nine survivors are all responding to treatment and are doing well. If there are critical situations in other hospitals they still bring them to us, so we might still expect more of them.”
The National Hospital Information officer further disclosed that the hospital was attending to the victims medically and have stabilized them as they are responding to treatment.”
“We will also discharge them if they feel they want to go to other hospitals, as far as there is no threat to their lives.”
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