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Boko Haram kills 17 near Chibok
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FG accuses northern govs of laxity in fighting terror
It was however learnt that the death toll might have risen as more people had died in hospitals by yesterday. But the Plateau State Government in a statement by the Commissioner for Information, Mrs. Olivia Dazyam, put the death toll at 75 and that 126 others were injured. The incident also attracted more condemnations yesterday from Senate President David Mark; his deputy, Senator Ike Ekweremadu; former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar and the United States.
The state governor, Jonah Jang, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Jamatul Nasir Islam (JNI) also decried the attack. Amid the grieving and condemnations of the Jos bombings, Boko Haram, believed to be the sponsor of the attack continued its killing spree as it attacked a village near Chibok, Borno State, where about 274 schoolgirls were abducted over a month ago, killing 17 persons.
On its part, the Federal Government has accused northern state governors of not doing enough to end insurgency in the country. For the survivors, it was a moment of thanksgiving for escaping death by a whisker. Some of them told New Telegraph on their beds yesterday at Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Plateau Specialist Hospital and Bingham University Teaching Hospital, in Jos that the only thing they could remember was the last moments before the blasts.
When New Telegraph visited the hospitals, relations were seen queuing to confirm if their family members were on admission at the health facilities while others were seen searching for the bodies of their relations. One of the survivors, Hadiza Ajiji, told New Telegraph that what she could remember was her last moments before the blasts as she blacked out and woke up in the hospital.
Ajiji, who sustained serious injuries, said: “Three of us were inside Keke NAPEP (tricycle) near the old JUTH and one of the passengers decided to alight and then suddenly, a big Peugeot J5 bus came behind us and the driver of the tricycle decided to slow down to allow it to overtake us.
The bus was laden with heavy bags of maize. Less than five minutes after the bus overtook our tricycle, all of a sudden, we heard a big sound like thunder. In fact, as I am talking to you now, I don’t know if those with whom we were together in the tricycle survived.
“As we heard the blast, I didn’t know where I was; I only found myself here in the hospital. You can see that my body was seriously burnt; but I thank God that I’m alive.” Another survivor, Elizabeth Musa, was in the market to purchase some items when the incident happened.
“I went to the market to purchase some items and I was close to where the bomb exploded. I didn’t know how it happened or that I didn’t die because when I recovered, I just found myself in the hospital,” she said.
Also narrating what he recalled before the explosions, Suleiman Ismail told New Telegraph amid tears on his hospital bed that his mother had sent him to the terminus to deliver a message to somebody and he was close to his destination when he heard the explosions. Like others, he never knew how he got to the hospital. Recounting her own ordeal, another survivor, Mrs. Oluyede, said she was trying to buy shoes for her children when the explosions occurred and she immediately collapsed.
“Everybody was running for his life; and all I knew was that I found myself here in the hospital because when it happened, there was a thick black cloud with black smoke all over the place,” she added.
Deputy Public Relations Officer of Plateau Water Board, Mr. John Chuwang, said he was in the market to address some customers of the board when the explosions occurred. Chuwang said immediately he alighted from the vehicle that took him to the market, he heard a bang after which something hit his leg. “I saw people beside and in front of me falling dead but God saved me with only this wound on my leg,” he said
A report by PREMIUM TIMES said officials of Plateau Specialist Hospital confirmed that 15 of the injured victims brought to the casualty unit died just before midnight.
A laboratory manager at the National Blood Transfusion unit of the Plateau Specialist Hospital, Demne Kut, said most of the 15 victims died during treatment due to loss of blood.
The online news medium reported counting at least 52 other corpses on the floor of the hospital mortuary, including that of a child. It also saw about 100 bodies at the mortuary of the Jos University Teaching Hospital temporary site, which is adjacent the blast scene, adding that the situation was similar at Bingham University Teaching Hospital.
A medical personnel at JUTH, who pleaded not to be identified, told the online news site that about 120 corpses were brought to the hospital, while injured persons were rushed to the permanent site for medication.
A 500-level Medical Laboratory Science student of the University of Jos, Christiana Paul, said seven of her course mates died in the blasts.
“The seven of them are my course mates, we are in 500-level. They went to Terminus to shop and the bomb caught up with them. Two bodies are here at the Plateau Specialist Hospital Mortuary,” the student said in tears. Also at the Plateau Specialist Hospital, one Usman Adamu said he came to recover the body of his landlady, Amina. He said the victim was at the market to buy a dress for her brother’s daughter who is about to wed.
A cleric, Godwin Ejeh, of Kingdom Dominion Chapel, Dadinkowa, also told the online news medium that his 18-year-old daughter, Shekina Ejeh, who was sent to the market to buy groceries, died in the blast. A civil servant, Keneng Choji, said she lost her daughter-in-law, two grandchildren and a neighbour to the explosions.
However, the information officer of the Plateau Specialist Hospital, Mrs. Talatu Angi, told New Telegraph in Jos that the hospital had so far recorded a total of 55 corpses while 35 victims were receiving treatment at the hospital. As the bereaved family members mourn their dead and the survivors battle to survive, the Senate president condemned the bomb blasts, charging Nigerians to be more vigilant within their environment.
Mark also urged Nigerians to remain resolute in the fight against terrorists while assuring them that the Federal Government would strive to guarantee security of lives and property in the country. Mark said the events of recent times posed serious threat to the survival of the country.
Mark’s deputy also condemned the blasts, describing them as “callous and completely unacceptable.” Ekweremadu, while decorating his personal orderly, Edward Utuh, with the rank of Inspector of Police yesterday in Abuja, said the culture of bombing was completely alien to the country, and called for a united front to combat it.
Also reacting to the bombings in Jos, Atiku, while condemning the attack, called for an all-party conference to combat the insurgency. He said in a statement in Abuja that this was aimed at forging a united approach to the spate of insurgency, which he described as a threat to the peace and unity of Nigeria.
According to him, the persistent terrorist violence against innocent people is embarrassing and intolerable. He, however, advised Nigerians not to despair and succumb to terrorists’ menace, which is aimed at paralysing the country with fear and hopelessness, and ultimately turning Nigerians against one another.
The US Embassy in Nigeria also condemned the multiple bomb blasts in Jos and that of Kano on May 18. In a statement in Abuja, the embassy said these vicious attacks on Nigerian civilians and the abduction last month of more than 200 girls in Chibok were unconscionable acts and starkly demonstrated the criminality of the perpetrators who continue to target defenceless civilians.
In condemning the attack on Jos, the Arewa Consultative Forum described it as wicked and gruesome, considering the huge destruction of property and loss of lives it caused.
In a statement by its spokesman, Alhaji Muhammad Ibrahim, the ACF said the North had experienced too many bomb blasts in the last six years, which have distorted the economic life of the region, thereby undermining its socioeconomic development. It appealed to the terrorists to stop killing and called on government at all levels to take proactive measures to halt the terror attacks.
ACF’s counterpart in the South-West, Afenifere, also reacted to the Jos blasts in a similar manner, describing the act as a ferocious war against “our humanity”.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Yinka Odumakin, the group said the coming of the explosions the very day the Senate extended the emergency rule in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, showed that the insurgents were far more determined than the nation was ready to admit.
It urged the Federal Government to move beyond condemnation of the attacks and unmask their sponsors. For Jamatul Nasir Islam, an Islamic group, the attack on Jos was shocking and painful.
In a statement by the group’s Secretary General yesterday, Dr. Khalid Abubakar Aliyu, JNI said the attack had dragged Jos back to the terror and restlessness era of before.
However, the Federal Government has berated governors of the 19 northern states for their inability to partner it to stem the insurgency. Minister of Information, Mr. Labaran Maku, told State House reporters in Abuja after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting that the governors were not doing enough to win the war against terror.
According to him, the governors must do more than criticising the Federal Government’s decision to extend the state of emergency in the North-East but should begin to reorganise social structures, including grassroots mobilisation and information gathering to halt continued killings of innocent citizens
Meanwhile, the National Working Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has postponed, by one week, the presidential launch of the Ekiti State governorship campaign, slated for today. PDP National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Olisa Metuh, said in a statement yesterday in Abuja that the postponement was in honour of the victims of Tuesday’s explosions in Jos.
Irrespective of the angst over the killing in Jos, Boko Haram, believed to have masterminded the attack, has struck again, killing 17 people in an attack on a village in Borno State, close to Chibok, where over 200 schoolgirls were seized. In the latest attack, Boko Haram fighters reportedly spent hours killing and looting in the village of Alagarno.
Witnesses in Alagarno said the suspected Boko Haram fighters arrived close to midnight, and killed and looted for hours before leaving in stolen vehicles. One survivor told the BBC that every single building in the village had been torched.
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