The grieving husband of Mrs. Ebele Jane Peters, who was shot dead, along with her two-year-daughter, Nmesoma, at FESTAC area of Lagos State on Tuesday, when robbers attacked two banks, yesterday said his wife and kid wouldn’t have died if God had not permitted it. Ebele and Nmesoma were killed by stray bullet from the smoking guns of the robbers that attacked the two banks. They were inside their flat, on the third floor of the building when the bullet got them.
The late Ebele had three kids. Nmesoma was the youngest. The older kids, with the oldest being six-year-old, were said to have left for school. Nmesoma was buried on Tuesday night at a mechanic village around Alakija, while the remains of Ebele was deposited at the Isolo General Hospital. Ebele’s husband, Peter Ndirika, who appeared to have resigned to fate, recollected how he got to know that his wife and daughter were dead. He said: “When I got back home in the evening, I saw blood everywhere.
I met people in the house and a girl was cleaning blood. “When I got there, I saw my wife lying lifeless. I asked about my daughter. They told me that they have taken her to Navy hospital at Satellite Town. I had to take my wife away from where she was. I took her to the Lord’s Chosen Hospital before she was later transferred to Alimosho General Hospital.
It was there they confirmed her dead.” Peter, a pastor with Lords Chosen Church, said that he was still in shock over the tragedy when he received a phone call from his wife’s kid brother who told him that his little girl was dead.
“The facts still remains that we don’t have to blame anybody! It’s God that allowed my daughter and wife to die. Nothing can happen without his permission.” He said that people should learn from what happened to him.
He added: “As she’s gone, I know she and my little daughter are in a better place. And to all of us that are still living today, we are all going to meet her because death is inevitable. What matters most is where you are going to spend your eternity at the end of this life and I’m confident that she will make heaven. The opportunity that we have to live every day is a privilege to move closer to God!” Yesterday in their home, people wore long faces and many were seen crying silently.
The mood was mournful. One of the neighbours, Mrs. Uju, said: “On that fateful day, the woman bid her husband, Peters Ndirika, goodbye was he left for work. But the man didn’t know that would be the last time he would be seeing his wife and daughter alive. Her husband is shuttle driver in FESTAC. He used to leave very early in the morning for his daily business.”
Recalling how the last moment of the woman and her daughter, Uju said: “Everything happened so fast! We were all taken unaware. I was with her in their parlor when the shooting started. For safety, we laid flat on the floor.
But the little girl, Nmesoma, was inside the inner room. She started crying. Ebele stood and went to pick her. As she was rushing back to the parlour with Nmesoma, a stray bullet pierced the window and hit the baby on the chest. The same bullet got Ebele on her left shoulder.
“She rushed the baby back into the inner room and started shouting for help. This was even as the robbery operation continued outside. The baby died instantly. The mum had started losing so much blood before she was rushed to the hospital where she died.” Ebele who worked as a nurse at Igando General Hospital, Alimosho Local Government Area before her death, was on afternoon shift and was doing some domestic chores that morning when shootings started.
“Ebele would have been saved if she had been rushed immediately to the hospital. But the robbery attack went on. She was already weak before she was rushed to Mother and Child Medical Center at First Gate, where she died,” recounted Uju. Meanwhile, commercial activities have gradually resumed at the avenue. People were however seen, clustering together, discussing the incident. Repair works were yet to commence on the affected banks.
It would be recalled that on Tuesday, a gang of commando styled robbers, numbering about 40, stormed banks along FESTAC 4th Avenue in the early hours of Tuesday, carting away millions of naira .
The robbers came in three flying boats through the canal, leading to Mile 2, FESTAC. Area E Commander, FESTAC, Frank Mba, said that policemen responded promptly and pursued the robbers who fled, leaving N27million and some live ammunition. Mba said that no life was lost. He adding that the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Fatai Owoseni has sworn to do everything humanly and operationally possible to apprehend the perpetrators of the act.
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