‘Our scars, predicament after the bombs’

Veronica Otu, 30, had several plans in 2014 but certainly being a victim of bomb blast was not one of them. The nurse who hails from Akwa Ibom State had looked forward to getting married to her fiancé after several years of courtship. But a bomb blast which occurred on June 26 at the Emab […]

Veronica Otu, 30, had several plans in 2014 but certainly being a victim of bomb blast was not one of them. The nurse who hails from Akwa Ibom State had looked forward to getting married to her fiancé after several years of courtship. But a bomb blast which occurred on June 26 at the Emab Plaza in Abuja did not only leave her with permanent scars on her body it also shattered her dream of getting married to her fiancé.
On that fateful day Veronica had gone to a pharmacy located within the precincts of the popular Emab Plaza at Wuse area to buy something.
“I first went to Wuse market that morning before proceeding to the Plaza to buy some items. After the transaction the sales personnel assisted me in conveying the goods to the roadside where I intended to board a taxi. Suddenly I head a staccato sound like that of a submachine gun spitting pellets of death; it was a bomb blast!”
Following the blast Veronica fell on the ground and was soaked in her own blood. “There was blood all over me; my head hands and legs all of which turned black, even as I writhed in severe pains”, she recalled.
Eventually she was taken to the Federal Staff Hospital along Airport Road at Jabi where she remained under treatment for a month and discharge. After discharge, however, her agony was not over as she had to contend with further medical bills on her own.
“The hospital stopped attending to me after discharge and I had to personally manage to pay my bills, including the cost of a plastic surgery I underwent. At my workplace I was still expected to work for normal hours in spite of my condition. Even when I applied to the MD of the hospital where I worked for assistance it did not come”, she said.
For Veronica, life had never been the same since that fateful day as even the relationship she was into came to an end. “I was in a relationship with someone who was planning to get married to me but after that bomb blast the person disappeared. My family members also deserted me including my church. I even made an attempt to see my State Governor then but to no avail. What I am now left with are the scars of that incident which itch so badly”, she said.
Veronica is not the only victim of the Emab Plaza bomb blast whose body is now wearing the scars of sorrow. Arthur Iorhen Vav, an applicant who lives at Lugbe in Abuja is also in a similar situation. Arthur, a graduate of political science from the Benue State University hails from Katsina Ala Local Government area of Benue State. Like Veronica, his story is also heart rending.
According to him, he was working with a pharmacist on an MDG project at the Apo-1. “On that fateful day we were gathering drugs at the plaza. As I was waiting for my boss at the plaza I decided to walk somebody off towards the gate. In the process I heard a deafening explosion and found myself flat on the ground where I crawled in search for assistance.
“I was eventually conveyed to the Maitama General Hospital and later moved to the Asokoro General Hospital where I spent a month going through series of surgeries”, he said. Iorhen who is also left with a deep scar on his left thigh, said as an applicant life had been so difficult for him after the bomb blast, as no assistance was coming from any quarters.
The 28-year-old who said he is making frantic effort to see Governor Ortom for possible assistance, added: “I even wrote to Senator Barnabas Gemade who is representing my area but a senior legislative aide of the senator told me at the time that Gemade would have no assistance to offer me because he was then in the PDP and I was perceived to be sympathetic to the APC.”
Kayode Olatunji, a student of mechanical engineering from the Federal University of Technology, Yola also has a similar story to tell. Unlike Veronica and Arthur, Olatunji was a victim of the Suleja bomb blast that had occurred at the INEC office.
“Three days to my wedding introduction I was supposed to travel but could not because I was an adhoc staff in the election. I went to the INEC office at Suleja to check my name for the exercise and while in the process the bomb blast occurred.
“I was left with what the doctors called communicated fracture with intense nerve and tissue injury, first degree burns even as my eardrum and teeth got shattered in the blast. I was later conveyed to the Suleja General Hospital where several other victims who were also brought died.
Eventually, I was moved to Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital where several doctors attended to me. At Gwagwalada I had an orthopedic surgery which lasted for 10 hours. Many people turned away from me during my travails in the hospital but my family stood by me”, he said.
But unlike Veronica whose fiancee deserted her in the wake of the bomb blast, Olatunji is consoled by the fact that three years after the Suleja blast she got wedded to the same lady he was engaged to prior to the blast.” I am happy that I got married to the same lady and our union is now blessed with a baby girl”, he said.
Olatunji shares a similar story with Musa Baba Audu who teaches at the Girls Day Secondary School, Suleija. Like Olatunji he too had applied to work as an adhoc staff of INEC in the elections and had gone to check for his name on the fateful day when the blast occurred.
“The place was filled with crowd and everybody was struggling to have their way. When I raised my head in an attempt to check for my name I heard the blast which effect lifted me and threw me to the ground. I eventually found myself at the Gwagwalada Specialist Hospital where I became friends with Olatunji”, Audu said, adding that life had never been the same again for him.
Pathetic as their stories sound, they are underscored by fact that they were lucky to have survived the blasts. Hope Musa, another survivor of the June 26, 2014 EMAB Plaza was not that lucky. About a month ago, Hope who hailed from Taraba State died as a result of injuries sustained from the blast. The blast was said to have affected his brain and he was poorly managed which led to several episodes of convulsion until his death as he could not afford to further his treatment for a neurosurgical operation abroad.
Having survived from the same situation (bomb blast), Veronica, Arthur, Olatunji and Audu have now formed a broader alliance to seek for support. They are now at the forefront of an association known as Bomb Victims Association of Nigeria (BVN) which was formed with the guidance of the chairman of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) Professor Chidi Odinkalu.
At a recent press briefing the BVN alleged neglect by the relevant authorities on their plight as bomb victims. “As a result of prolonged neglect of the victims of this bomb blasts across Northern Nigeria, some of us who initially survived the bombings have died, many due to little or no medical and others as a result of their inability to continue with their medical bills or further their treatment here in Nigeria or abroad”, they said in a statement jointly signed by Kayode Oladele Olatunji and Musa Baba Audu.
In an emotion-laden tone, they said: “We are united by our scars and our belief that together we can care for and support one another to get through this trauma, reclaim our dignity and, ultimately, prevail over the perpetrators of the crimes that have scared our lives forever.”
It was based on the above backdrop that the bomb blast victims among other things demanded for an inquiry into the status of the Victims Support Fund which was established in July 2014 and ascertain the whereabouts of the over N80bn raised for the support of the victims.