'Terrible: the Abuja blast, the sad effects'

a map of the affected area from the BBC

 By Evelyn Blog with agency report

The British Broadcasting corporation (BBC) has said that the Boko Haram's fighters have killed more than 1,500 civilians in three states in north-east Nigeria.

The latest blast in the Nyanya area of Abuja has lead to the death of over 7o people and left 124 badly injured. A lot is still being said about the blast with various groups of Nigerians expressing grief and anger over the incident.

Dr John udeme who spoke with Jessica David for Evelyn’s blog said he was at the area where the explosion occurred at exactly 6:42 am this morning. he had driven slightly far away but was still held back by traffic when three minutes later, a blast was heard from the area. He and his friends in the car turned back and had to come down from the vehicle that they ware in, to see the massacre.

Another young man, a colleague said to Jessica that he was on his way there when suddenly he saw smoke, and they heard people stopping vehicles from continuing towards that area. After few enquiries they were told that the sound they had heard which seemed looked that of a bomb from afar, was actually a bomb exploding in the Nyanya park.

a woman in angwish cries out at the sight of the affected dead people-  BBC

But more disturbing is eye witness account by the BBC: Eyewitness Mimi Daniels, who works in Abuja, said: "I was waiting to get on a bus when I heard a deafening explosion then smoke; People were running around in panic.

Another eyewitness had this to say: "I have never seen [anything] like that in my life. It was just terrible. We were just running helter-skelter. So somehow I think that they planted something inside one of the buses there.

"So there are many dead shot down at the scene of the accident. And as you can see now some of these casualties... we are hoping, we are praying they will be ok. We saw some ambulances bringing corpses to other hospitals."

No group has taken responsibility for the attack, but Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan blamed Boko Haram.

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Boko Haram has hit Abuja several times before, including an attack on the United Nations building in 2011.

Officials earlier said two separate blasts had ripped through the terminal, but later said the damage may have been caused by just one bomb.

Abbas Idris, head of the Abuja Emergency Relief Agency, told the BBC that so far Police spokesman Frank Mba gave the same figures, adding that 16 luxury coaches and 24 minibuses had been destroyed.

Eyewitness Badamasi Nyanya said he had seen 40 bodies being evacuated; other eyewitnesses say they saw rescue workers and police gathering body parts.

Investigators believe the explosives may have been inside a vehicle, according to Charles Otegbade of the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

 

an ambulance carrying some of the victims at the Asokoro Hospital in Abuja

Also according to punch online, this sadff report emanated from friends and relatives of the affected: It was tears, wailing, screaming and anger at the Wuse General Hospital, Abuja, on Monday afternoon as some visibly irate citizens forcefully demanded for the corpses of their dead relatives.

After sighting the corpse of one of their colleagues at the hospital, a group of young men, who alleged that they had searched four hospitals for the corpses of two of their colleagues, forcefully demanded that the hospital should release the one that they saw.

One of them, who gave his name as Obinna Nwankwo, told our correspondent that they were disappointed by the management of the hospital.

According to him, the dead bodies were not placed in the mortuary but were left under the sun and thereafter transferred into a Hilux.

At about 2.51pm, our correspondent saw the corpses being transferred into a Toyota Hilux with registration CT151C28, while others were moved into a Toyota Hiace ambulance with registration CT208A08.

It was gathered that the mortuary at the hospital lacked the capacity to accommodate the dead brought in by the emergency response agencies.

A senior official at the office of the medical director told our correspondent that the bodies were transferred out of the hospital based on the directive of the Federal Ministry of Health.

The official, who pleaded not to be named, said, “We cannot put them in the mortuary because of some constraints and that is why the health ministry has directed that we move them to another location. I cannot tell you where the bodies are being moved to now.”

Nwankwo also stated that the body of his other colleague had not been seen up till about 3pm.

He said, “This is very sad because is like we have lost all know means of addressing this menace. A colleague of mine in the office was affected and up till this afternoon we have not been able to see his body. We have seen the other one who was also affected but we are still searching for the second person.

“We have gone to all the hospitals where they said victims were taken to but his corpse has not been seen in any of these hospitals. All of us at our place of work are so confused because we have tried his lines and none of them connected. At the hospitals nobody can give us any good report.

“If they cannot take care of the bodies, they should give them to their relatives instead of allowing them stay under the sun for hours unnecessarily.”