Tension in Jos as bombs kill 118

The back-to-back bombs at the Terminus Market in the city centre disrupted a long-spell of peace in the Plateau State capital, which had seen at least two other bomb attacks in the past.Witnesses said the first explosion, from a bomb planted in bags of maize in a Peugeot J5 bus, happened at about 2.50pm. Some […]

The back-to-back bombs at the Terminus Market in the city centre disrupted a long-spell of peace in the Plateau State capital, which had seen at least two other bomb attacks in the past.
Witnesses said the first explosion, from a bomb planted in bags of maize in a Peugeot J5 bus, happened at about 2.50pm. Some 35 minutes later, the second bomb detonated from a Toyota Sienna bus, just metres away.
Most of the dead were killed by the first bomb, according to witnesses and rescue workers.
Daily Trust reporters, who visited the scene soon after the first explosion, saw decapitated human parts strewn all over the place. The blast also ignited a huge fire.
The incident threw Jos into confusion, and threatened to ignite sectarian violence.
Shops and business places were quickly shut, as residents rushed home to safety.
Later last night, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said the body count stood at 118.
“We have collated figures of the injured and the dead handled by security agencies which include the Federal Road Safety Commission, the Police, the National Security and Civil Defence Corps and the total number came to 118,” NEMA’s North-Central coordinator Abdulsalami Mohammed told Daily Trust.
He said also that 64 people received various degrees of injuries and were being treated in hospitals around the city.
Earlier in the day, State Police Commissioner Chris Olakpe, told journalists that 46 people were killed but that by that time he had visited only two of the hospitals where the bodies and the injured were taken.
He said he could only give a final figure after visiting the third hospital, being Jos University Teaching Hospital. The other two were the Plateau Specialists Hospital and Bingham University Teaching Hospital.
“So far, 46 corpses have been deposited in various hospitals in the state while 45 persons are hospitalised,” Olakpe said.
He urged for calm by all residents of the city.
Hospitals had difficult times attending to the injured. Daily Trust gathered that management of the Jos University Teaching Hospital had to call all its doctors to report for work by 5pm yesterday.
At the Plateau Specialists Hospital, our reporters counted 38 bodies deposited at the mortuary, while members of the Federal Road Safety Corps were seen depositing charred body parts from the scene to the hospital.
At the Bingham University Teaching Hospital, four dead bodies had arrived at the morgue by the time our correspondent got there.
How the blasts occurred
Daily Trust reports that the Jos market is regarded as a neutral area for Muslims and Christians.
A witness, Kabiru Idris, said they first noticed the J5 bus early in the day and reported to the police who removed the number plate but made no effort to find out what the bus was carrying.
“We at the market noticed the J5 and reported to the police that we didn’t know the owners of the car but they only removed the plate number of the car and said that when the owner comes he should come and see them,” he said.
“Now, see what has happened, see all our people dead. What have we done to deserve this? We are only poor and law abiding citizens in search of our daily bread.”
A family that lost their shop and car to the blasts said they could not find the girl who helped them at the shop.
Deborah Adigun, daughter of the family head, said they were still dazed about what happened.
“We were in the shop as usual when we had boom!” Deborah said, her hands on her head as they paced the surroundings of the first bomb blast and as the family shop and car still blazed away.
One of Daily Trust correspondents was still speaking with Deborah when the second blast occurred within a shouting distance of the first and people who had thronged the scene of the first blast run to safety.
The second blast, apparently timed to catch part of the thronging crowd unawares, raised the casualty figures considerably.
The bombings led to skirmishes around Jos city with youths blocking major roads to attack members of different faiths.
Some youths barricaded major roads around Rukuba road and Bauchi road but the incident at Bauchi road was brought under control by vigilantes who dispersed the youths.
The Special Task Force spokesman, Captain Ikedichi Iweha, explained the situation: “When such things happen there are those who want to take advantage but our men are everywhere. We have taken position to stop any act of skirmish and we advise that people stay away from the Terminus area.”
Meanwhile, Governor Jonah Jang has described “the sponsors and masterminds of the bomb attacks in the country” as enemies of the nation, democracy and humanity.
In a statement by spokesman James Mannok, Jang “condemned this destruction of human lives and urged the security agencies and all patriotic Nigerians to join in fishing out the perpetrators to save the innocent lives of Nigerians.”
Information Commissioner Olivia Dazyem, who spoke to journalists, appealed to hospitals in the state to accept those injured.
“Full investigation is ongoing in order to unravel those behind the attacks,” the commissioner said.
The senator representing Plateau North, in whose constituency the blasts happened, Senator Gyang Pwajok, described the blasts as an ugly development that threatened to take Jos back to a time of bloodshed that the city has laboured to put behind it.