Jos Explosions: Unijos Lecturer, Survivors, Victims’ Families Recount Ordeal

It's been almost three weeks since the deadly twin explosion hit the terminal market in Jos, Plateau State, claiming lives of hundreds of people and injuring scores. Today, a number of survivors and relatives of the victims have shared their painful memories and experience of the accident.

At least eight of the deceased were identified as the University of Jos' students. Their names are Monday Dungak, Lydia Komolafe, Francisca Nwafor, Ogbole Micheal, Doris Gebunem, Vivian Chiamaka, Yusuf Mili – all 500 level students of Medical Laboratory Science Department, and Tessy Bala, a student of the Department of Pharmacy.

A representative of the university said only two bodies were recovered, given to their families and subsequently buried on May 30.

One of the deceased students, Tessy Bala, was set to marry soon and was making calls to ensure finishing arrangements just minutes before the blast. Her body, however, was never found.

The survivors

Ismail Suleiman, a 23-year-old Computer Science student at the University, who survived the explosion, said he was on his way to Bauchi Road to deliver a message to a taxi driver going to Wase Local Government Area when the blast occurred.

“The driver was not around so I walked back to go behind the Railway Station in terminus to check on my grandfather, but he was also not around. After a few minutes, I decided to go back and check if the driver had returned. But before I got there, I heard a loud sound which knocked me down,” he said.

He said the blast was the last thing he remembered before waking up at the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH, surrounded by doctors.

Another survivor, Elizabeth Musa, who sold water yam and moringa leaves by the fence of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH, old site, was discovered under rubbles by a young man searching for survivors. He saw her and called on another and they dragged her into a car which headed to the hospital.

“I was bleeding and drifting in and out of consciousness. Immediately we entered the hospital – I remember they gave me two injections – someone was saying, ‘She is bleeding too much. Take her to the theatre,’” Mrs. Musa told PREMIUM TIMES.

With her head, legs, and arm still bandaged, Mrs. Musa said doctors had confirmed that her right eye was permanently damaged.

“Boko Haram has taken my eye but to God be the Glory because the power of God is greater than the power of Boko Haram, the lord has put them to shame,” she said.

Mrs. Musa’s daughter, Helen, said she was happy and grateful to God that though half of her mother’s body was bandaged she was alive at the Plateau Specialist Hospital.

“Compared to what we have seen in the morgue, we praise God that our mother is alive,” she said.

Victim’s families narrate ordeal

Mahmud Muhammad’s 13-year-old daughter, Aisha, died in the explosions.

Mr. Muhammad said the two days of uncertainty and apprehension, searching for her remains at JUTH was excruciating.

Her corpse was eventually found and buried.

Also, the family of Mukhtar Baba, a commercial tricycle driver, found him alive at a hospital. But he died 24 hours later during treatment at JUTH.

The deceased’s younger brother, Salisu, said the 35-year-old man left three children behind.

“When we all moved to his bed, we saw him with an oxygen mask on his nose. His entire body was bandaged and there was a rubber support attached to his neck. The hospital staff then prescribed drugs and ordered us to buy them but unfortunately he died the next day,” Salisu said.

Chaplin Mbachu, the owner of a pharmaceutical shop along Shendam Street, said his relatives have been going round hospitals in search of Nancy, his sales girl.

The 20 year-old had left the shop around 2:25 p.m. on the day of the explosion to pick up Mr. Mbachu’s daughter from school.

Nancy never got to the school.

She is believed to have been a victim of the explosion, which occurred at about 3:00 p.m., as the market was her route; but Mr. Mbachu said they have been unable to find her at the various morgues visited.

It is not clear if Nancy’s corpse is among several buried by the Plateau State government in an unannounced mass burial on May 23.

The government has said the buried corpses were mutilated and burnt beyond recognition.

The mass burial was condemned by several Jos residents including by the Igbo community.

The Eze Igbo of Jos, Jerome Obilom, registered the displeasure of the ethnic group in Jos, three days after the mass burial.

“”We insist that Ndigbo in Jos should have been consulted to identify their own because it is not our customs to bury our dead outside our traditional homes,” he said.

He said the Igbo community lost 36 members to the explosion while 42 others were injured.

The Terminus market where the twin explosions occurred has since been shut with the state government saying it would no longer allow trading to go on there.

Source: Legit.ng