Businesses standstill as FCT residents mourn blast victims

Business activities at Nyanya Market, located on the outskirt of Abuja, were paralysed on Monday following the early morning bomb blasts at the vehicle park, which officially claimed over 71 lives and injured over 124 people.
The blast, which occurred around 7:05am was said to be mounted in a small car parked under a tree between the extreme of Nyanya bridge and the park.
The park is occupied by SURE–P buses plying Nyanya to different parts of the city. The park is usually a beehive of activities for tricycle operators, truck pushers and hawkers.

According to an eye witness, Chidibere Okereke, who is an assistant driver in one of the El- Rufai buses, the blast occurred when about four SURE – P buses were filled with passengers ready to move while other passengers were on queue to board vehicle to their respective places of work.
Chidebere stated that more than three hundred people might have died, although official figure of causalities was yet to be ascertained as at the time of filing this report.
He said: “If you had ever been to this park on Mondays early in the morning, you will appreciate what I am saying, each SURE – P bus carries not less than 50 passengers, and four of them were burnt while fully loaded with passengers; put the figure together and you will have not less than 300 dead bodies, although the buses going to Area One were not filled with passengers when the incident happened, and were also not affected much as compelled to SURE – P buses.”
Another eye witness, who gave his name as Austin Nwachuku, said he was just coming down on a bike close to the park when he heard a shattering noise, which shook the ground where he stood, and before he knew what was happening he saw dead bodies lying on the ground.
“I was on top of the bridge and I saw people queue up in the park to enter motor, but unfortunately before I could get down to joined them on the queue I saw more than fifty of them dead. I cannot tell the number that was inside the buses, but I can attest that about four of the buses were filled and were about to take off.
I missed death narrowly.” Not only the passengers died, but also some officials of the park, beggars, and hawkers. Meanwhile, tight security has been mounted around the market axis putting restriction to vehicular movement on the Abuja – Keffi road which passes through Nyanya market.
The commercial buses were not operating, and the commuters were left stranded as they could not go out for their businesses.This is in addition to businessmen/ women in Nyanya Market who counted their losses as shops were closed because of tension and fear of the unknown.
A boutique operator, Mr. Charles Obiora, said it was a bad day for business in Nyanya as no sale was recorded because of the incident. Only sachet water hawkers were going on with their normal business as people who trooped to witness the scene could not stop cooling their thirst in the scorching weather.
Commenting on the tight security around the market prior to the disaster, a resident close to Nyanya who gave his name as Ibrahim, said the security operators should not concentrate much on Nyanya market now hence the deed had been done. Ibrahim stated that the perpetrators’ target may be shifted to another location in the city.
He further charged the security personnel to be on the alert, adding that this might just be one of the planned bombings in Abuja during this Easter period.
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