Nyanya’s Tale of Terror

President Jonathan at a hospital where some of the affected patients are receiving treatment

Senator Iroegbu recounts the experience of the injured victims of the recent bombing of Nyanya bus park in which scores of people died.

The bombing last week, of the popular Nyanya bus park, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja has once again brought fear into the hearts of the residents of Abuja who had witnessed similar horror two years earlier.

Like any major terror attack, the April 14, 2014 bombing left behind tales of sorrow, tears and blood. Overall, more than 71 people were reportedly killed with several people injured and valuable property destroyed.
Nevertheless, as typical with human nature for instinctive survival, there would always be triumphant stories of heroism, miraculous escape and survival, which non other fits into this equation than the story of "baby Adams" and her mother.

Admitted to Asokoro General Hospital and separated from her mother who was later discovered to have been rescued and recuperating at Wuse General Hospital, Abuja, a six-month -old baby simply cheated death and would one day be able to tell the story.

She looked fragile, yet strong, bruised and battered but still alive. She looked innocent and weak, yet defiant and hopeful as observed in her sign language. Of course, physically separated from her mother for a moment, baby Adams has become a symbol of resilience that has kept Nigeria as one against all odds.

Fortunately, the significance of the survivor of the baby did not escape both the hospital authorities and the officials of the FCT Administration who are doing everything possible to keep her stable from the terror trauma.
Accordingly, the first to identify with this symbolic triumph over deadly terrorist assault was the FCT Minister of State, Chief Olajumoke Akinjide who on her assessment visit to the hospital on the day of the blast talked about the survival of the baby.

Akinjide who was horrified by the bombing of the bus park and the casualty figure recorded could not hold herself from a brief moment of joyful smile on realising that among those receiving treatment at the Asokoro General Hospital was the six-month-old baby Adams whose mother was initially feared dead but later said to be receiving treatment at the emergency unit of Wuse hospital.

In the same vein, the FCT Minister, Senator Bala Mohammed who cut short his trip to Saudi Arabia for Lesser Hajj, to visit the hospital the following day also took special interest in the baby who cheated death.

However, Mohammed who was deeply touched by the tragic incident promised, with the assistance of the FCT hospital management to reunite the baby and her mother, Mrs. Gloria Adams, who is said to hail from Kaduna State and that he did.

"The baby’s situation here epitomises the barbaric act of these terrorists. However, as you can see how God does His things that the baby and mother survived the attack despite the intention of the wicked ones to separate them alive or dead.
"We are making steps to unite the baby with the mother who are currently at different hospitals," the minister said.

Meanwhile, there are similar stories and accounts of heroic and miraculous survival like that of baby Adams, which provide a vivid picture of how men can battle for their lives

One of such account was that of Mr. Jim Anthony who is currently receiving treatment from fire burnt and fractured bones but still alive and conscious enough to speak with this reporter

Anthony could not help but express gratitude to God for sparing his life but going by his account, his divine survival was inspired by his determination to stay alive.

According to the victim, he had bought ticket that fateful morning and queued up to board one of the high capacity urban mass transit buses, before he heard the loud explosion that threw him off balance.

He gave a picture of how the incident happened: “We were all there on the queue for the El-rufai buses, when suddenly we heard the explosion and the explosion came with intense vibration that swiftly moved us away from where we were standing. That was how many died.

"There was fire everywhere and people were burning inside the fire. I was burning as well and I had to roll myself instinctively on the ground to put off the fire, and it was when I tried to stand up that I realised that one of my legs had been broken," he said.

"It was then that it gradually began to dawn on me that I was fatally injured without even being aware of the burns, until I was rescued and brought to the hospital,"he explained.

Feeling grateful for what she attributed to divine intervention to save her husband, Mrs. Alice Anthony relayed how she was devastated by the news of the bombing on realising that her husband was affected by the blast.

Anthony who lives in an apartment at Nyanya community, near to the scene of the blast and was preparing to go to work said she was jolted by the blast.

"On discovering that it was a bomb at the bus park, I quickly put a call to my husband who has left the house to board a bus some minutes earlier.

Luckily he picked and I could hear him muttering some words and speaking incoherently. Later the line went dead and I ran to the scene but could not find him until my sister got the news that he was among those admitted here in the hospital," she narrated.

Other survivors also recounted their experience with THISDAY. one of the survivors and staff of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Mr. Sanusi Moyi, described how he was fortunate to have escaped the bombing. Moyi, who was driving along the Abuja-Keffi Expressway on his way to work, said he only heard a loud explosion that rattled his vehicle and suddenly seemed to have frozen the wheels of his car as it screeched to a sudden halt.

“As I passed the overhead, I just heard a loud explosion and suddenly an object rammed into my car and my windscreen was shattered. The vehicle halted and I was confused about what was happening until I saw large smoke coming from burning vehicles with road safety officers picking dead and injured people,” he narrated.

Similarly, another survivor, who also volunteered to rescue people, was one Prince James Igwe.
Igwe painted a more telling story of the event leading to the explosion before he was interrupted by security officials who forbade him from speaking to the media to avoid giving conflicting facts and figures.

He said: “A vehicle ran in here and parked blocking the exit point of the fully loaded el-Rufai buses. When the driver noticed, he horned but no one responded and he tried to reverse but could not as other buses were parked both behind and on the side.

“It was during this process (of looking for an exit) that the car exploded and all the drivers and passengers of the four vehicles in front died on the spot.”

Also, an eyewitness and a member of staff of Abuja Urban Mass Transit, Mr. Monday Isiaku, put the number of casualties at several dozens, with several fatally wounded.

Isiaku explained that the park was usually crowded in the morning, with many people disembarking or boarding various vehicles and commercial motorcycles to work.

“You can imagine that four of the el-Rufai vehicles were fully loaded with an average of 50 passengers each,” he said.

According to another eyewitness account, the large explosion which was felt a mile away from the vicinity and in the adjoining towns of Karu, Kugbo, Abacha Barracks, Kurudu, Asokoro, and as far as Maraba-Masaka axis in Nasarawa State, caused panic within the environs of the FCT.   

Similarly, a former reporter with the African Independent Television (AIT), Mr. Kunle Adewale, who lives close to the scene of the explosion, said he was in the bathroom when he heard of the explosion, but by the time he rushed to the scene, many luxury buses were already burnt along with their occupants.

“As I was coming out of the bathroom that morning, I heard a very loud explosion close to my house. As a journalist, I ran to the place and what I met brought goose pimples all over my body.

“Fully loaded el-Rufai buses, Keke NAPEPs (commercial tricycles), commercial bikes, passersby and others, were already charred and scores of lifeless bodies were on the floor. Human bodies were scattered on the ground and everybody was running helter-skelter. It has never happened like this before,” he said

Similarly to baby Adams very touching escape, THISDAY has also reported how one  Charles Oguike, who was receiving treatment in Asokoro General Hospital, Abuja had close shave with death first with the ill-fated Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) aptitude test and now with the blast.

Oguike narrated how God has been kind to him, having cheated death twice in the space of one month, with death tolls of 20 and 75 respectively for the NIS test stampede and Nyanya terrorist bombing.

“The explosion happened in such a way that I couldn’t recognise myself. I saw so many dead bodies scattered everywhere. Then, I knew that apart from breathing, life is nothing. In fact, in my own case, this is the second time I have escaped death narrowly. I escaped the immigration stampede and now I have escaped death from bomb blast.”

Similar to Oguike, another survivor in the person of Mr. Abang Malview, a 30-year-old Biochemistry graduate of the University of Calabar, also escaped the NIS recruitment exercise tragedy.

Abang, an indigene of Ogoja in Cross River State, recounted a traumatising story of those around him, who died during the explosion

He said that the force of the explosion was so powerful that it lifted and threw him to the other side of the park.

He said: “Almost all those who were standing with me perished in the blast. I got to Nyanyan bus park where I got the bus ticket at the point of entering the park, just at the gate. Vehicles lined up there after I had bought the ticket, but before I turned, I just heard a heavy explosion. It appeared a bomb was planted in one of the vehicles beside me,” he said.

“As God would have it, it just lifted me, threw me afar and I survived. All the people who were there with me where I bought the ticket perished. When I came back to consciousness owing to the impact of the explosion, I stood up and saw the place was engulfed in fire. However, I was struggling to move as I had a twisted foot, so some people came and gave me aid; they dragged me away from the fire,” he added.

Now, security experts have said that the government must do more to ensure the safety of Nigerians by getting ahead of the insurgents in all of their plans. That, of course is an important step.