While the nation’s security apparatus is always caught napping even when the growing tales of bomb explosions in the country is becoming a regular staple of daily news, the new wave of violence is creating fresh fears of insecurity among the general populace and changing for the worst the lives of individuals who are victims of the blast, the number of which is growing as the waves of explosions refuse to abate.

Based on investigations carried out by Weekly Trust as of April 16 this year, over 80 lives have so far been lost to the waves of bomb explosions in the country with over 90 people injured, especially in the north. With the latest tolls from Bauchi, Maiduguri, Abuja and Zaria the figure of casualty is increasing with the mayhem gradually becoming another statistics in Nigeria’s long list of security failures from kidnappings, militancy, robbery and election violence.

Emmanuel who is now left with fractured legs and hands, with bruises all over his body embodies the devastations of the blast beyond the mere statistics of figures reeled out by government officials and the police after every blast incidence, and the assurances of politicians who use the opportunity to make promises of free medical care to victims, spit-shining their image in public. Emmanuel now worries about the future as destitution stares him in the face with the lost of livelihood and the possibility of a disability.

His fate is also shared by Chibuzor Stanley, 40, who was also caught in the Bauchi barracks blast when he went to the Mammy Market to but cough syrups for his little son who was down with cold. Like Emmanuel, Chibuzor says he went out with the belief that there was going to be a bomb explosion. “I went to the barracks because we heard the rumour that there would be bomb explosion in the town,” he says. “I thought since it was a military barracks, it would be safe for me to shop there. I was with my friend at the Mammy barracks when we heard the first explosion. We were debating it. My friend said it was a tire that exploded. I disagreed with him that that was a bomb; we decided to go near to check it out as we saw the flame of fire.”

Chibuzoe says he still couldn’t believe that a bomb will explode in the barracks, a high security area, and he went on arguing with his friend that it was not a bomb explosion. As it turned out, he was dead wrong. Just as they were approaching the flame of fire a second explosion erupted leaving him with injuries. He recalls being stunned at first, and then running as fast as his legs could take him. He was lucky the injuries he sustained were minor.

While Chibuzor was lucky to escape with minor injuries, 13 others who died on the spot were not so lucky. Others were left with critical injuries. Among the critically injured is Shekara Abba, a policeman whose private parts was ripped off by the blast. Abba fate is another grim reminder of how a blast could forever change the lives of its victims.

Like a previous bomb blast that rocked the military barracks in Abuja, the bomb in Bauchi’s barracks was planted at the drinking joint. A survivor who craves anonymity says they took their safety for granted so much so that he picked the bomb that was planted in a black leather, joking that someone who has gotten drunk has forgotten it. He owes his survival to the fact that he dropped the leather and left the area to ease himself. That was when the explosion happened, killing all his drinking mates who moments earlier were laughing over his joke of the drunkard with the forgotten leather.

In his account of the incidence, the Bauchi State Secretary of the Nigerian Red Cross Society Alhaji Adamu Abubakar said “from the report we received the blast started from the shop of a service woman called Esther. She lost her two legs and there is a baby that lost his life; we suspected that that baby was her son. Immediately after the incident we started rescue operation, we were able to take wounded victims to the hospital, it was pathetic.”

Probably, nothing describes the patheticness of the reigning insecurity like the blast that erupted on the same day in Zaria killing two children from the same family. When the two children left home, it was an innocent foray to the borehole to fetch water for use at home. Malam Yahaya Soja, their father, did not anticipate any lurking danger when he sent them out to fetch water for the family from a nearby borehole. However, few minutes after Mansur Yahaya Soja, 14, and Abdullahi Yahaya Soja, 12, set out from their house at Tudun Masallaci in Iyan Juma ward, Zaria city, Soja heard a heavy sound from the direction of the borehole.

“Before I could even move out to see the cause of the blast, I was accosted with the sight of my two kids writhing in pool of their own blood,” he says. “They were evacuated from the scene of the blast by some good samaritans. Without hesitation we rushed them to Taimako Clinic for treatment. That was the beginning of our predicament.”

The two children are believed to have stepped on the spot where the bomb was buried. After the blast, the Acting Chairman of Zaria local government area, Alhaji Lukman Musa, promised that the local government would foot all the medical bills of Mansur and Abdullahi. While calling for calm in an interview with journalist, Alhaji Musa said the local government would do everything to assist the victims including footing their medical bills.

“But up till now that I am talking to you no government official gave us anything either as personal assistance or on behalf of the government. We are left to our own fate and as you can see, we are in a terrible condition. We didn’t call for this, it is the wish of Allah that this blast affected my two children,” says Soja in a grief-laden voice.

While Abdullahi, who sustained minor injuries, was treated and discharged by doctors of the Taimako Clinic, Mansur is still at the hospital nursing the serious wounds he sustained from the blast. The bomb that has injured the two brothers has now left residents of the area shaken for their lives.

Mallam Aliyu Nasir Suleiman, a resident says: “I reside around this area (Tudun Masallaci). I was sitting at my sitting room after coming back from the mosque. At around 6 am I heard a very heavy sound. We are not used to hearing that kind of sound, so confusion ensued in the area. We ran out from our houses to see what was going on. Having reached the explosion area we saw the two teenagers writhing in pool of their blood. We rushed them to Taimako Clinic for treatment.”

In the same vein, another explosion also occurred at PZ area of the city on the evening of Sunday, 29th May, 2011. The Sunday’s explosion occurred at a drinking joint, killing six people, says the manager Mr. Lawland.

Police Spokesperson, DSP Aminu Lawal confirmed the two incidents, saying that their bomb detectors were drafted to the two areas and investigation is ongoing to fish out the perpetrators. a