This Day bomb attack: A morning when smoke and splinters showered Jabi

In his words, “The sound was so loud it shook the entire area. I was sitting here in my garage in the morning and suddenly the media house exploded and the roof started to crash. I quickly ran to the police station here and informed them of what happened. We were there when the Vehicle […]

In his words, “The sound was so loud it shook the entire area. I was sitting here in my garage in the morning and suddenly the media house exploded and the roof started to crash. I quickly ran to the police station here and informed them of what happened. We were there when the Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO) came and began to carry some of the victims away to hospital.”

He added that “two people died here instantly with parts of the bodies scattered all over this place.”

This is just one eye witness from among hundreds of persons who saw the horror of bomb attacks that has spread from the North-East through North-West and now taking root in the North-Central part of the country, including the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. The suicide bombing devastated the head offices of ThisDay newspaper in Abuja on Thursday, April 26, leaving the place in a bloody, smoky mess, causing Abuja residents to panic as the myth of the security of the city of power dissolved into the clouds.

The attacker, who is yet to be identified by security agencies, crashed a bomb-laden car through the main gate of the publishing house, detonating explosives, as the vehicle hit the press hall, instantly killing two person and injuring several others. The attack occurred around 11:07 in the morning.

Another victim of the bombing, Grace Ogbuokiri, a student on Industrial Attachment in the Editorial Department of the company told Sunday Trust that she didn’t know how she was thrown from the office to another location in the building during the blast.

According to her, “The impact of the blast was so devastating that, for several minutes, I was dazed; I was out of my senses. I was in the office when it happened but found myself outside in the compound.  I was physically thrown out by several meters by the impact of the blast.”

Grace, who suffered injuries on her legs, and was being treated at Limi Hospital in the Central District Area of Abuja as at the time of filing this report,  said she and five other victims were initially admitted into the intensive care unit of the National Hospital because of the severity of the injuries. She was later transferred from the hospital to Limi Hospital.

Mr Oscar Osuagwu, another victim who survived the blast told Sunday Trust that the impact of the bomb threw him onto a dustbin. “Initially, I was in a state of coma. I didn’t know where I was.”

A transporter, he was to load his vehicle bound for Kano at Jabi Motor Park opposite ThisDay office, when the blast occurred.

He narrated his experience thus: “When it was my turn to load my vehicle, I drove in. There was no space for me to park the car. They said I should go and find somewhere to park. As I was going to park, crossing that road by the side of ThisDay, near the gate, then a certain blue jeep drove in with force. When the security men were trying to stop him, he smashed through and all we heard was a thunderous sound, and everybody started flying. I was thrown into a dustbin. My vehicle was rendered useless. The gate fell on top of the vehicle.”

But he recalled that officials of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) picked him from the dustbin through the anxious throng of people aghast at the scene of the blast. He added that “I found myself here. I don’t know how I came into the hospital.”

He was in a bed in the Accident and Emergency Ward at Wuse General Hospital, along with five other men who also survived the attack.

Doctors treating the elderly transport worker told Sunday Trust that Oscar suffered a “transient loss of consciousness,” and is recovering from some injuries.

Oscar explained that “I am having severe pains. Although there is no injury, the shock—it shook my brain. I am just lucky by God’s grace. I am a chosen, I was chosen.” he told Sunday Trust in his hospital bed.

Last Friday morning, he told investigating police officials at the hospital that he is certain he might have died in the blast that threw ThisDay’s gate onto his vehicle, rendering it “useless.”

Monday Daniel, another survivor at Wuse General, suffered impaired hearing -slight damage to his hearing – in the blast. He also had cuts under his left eye. Doctors who treated him had to shout words out loud for him to hear.

When Sunday Trust visited him last Friday, his hearing had improved remarkably: he didn’t need to be shouted at and when he gave his account of the incident to an investigating policeman, the officer didn’t have to shout either.

He told officers how he saw the jeep run through ThisDay gates as one security man tried to question the driver. The vehicle headed straight for the premises, missed one of two large press gates and exploded.

Mr Akachukwu Okwum was on scaffolding around a multi-storey building next to ThisDay. From the first floor, where he was, he looked down on the scene Daniel described.

In pidgin, Okwum said the security man ran when the jeep forced its way through the gate, aiming for the building. “He wanted to enter that building. Before he could reach it, the vehicle exploded. I don’t think the security man survived.”

The blast knocked him off the scaffolding and shattered the glass door in front of the building he was working on. There were broken glass cut in his hands and body. He smashed his head somewhere he couldn’t remember in his fall.

He recalled seeing one casualty being rushed into a vehicle, a second body scattered in “pieces” on the ground, and a third person still breathing.

A lone foot from the mutilated body appeared on a video posted on the Sunday Trust website. Bits of the body would later be taken to National Hospital in a body bag.

Emmanuel Joseph, from Port Harcourt, and Kingsley John also gave accounts to police. But they had stabilised in hospitals and doctors said they could be discharged anytime from Friday.

A sixth survivor, whose name hospital sources gave as Adamu, was also at Wuse General Hospital, but in less serious condition. After receiving treatment last Thursday, he went out to pray and never came back, hospital officials told Sunday Trust.

Only one survivor has left the National Hospital, where the most seriously wounded were admitted. Six more were still in serious condition, said hospital officials there.

After journalists briefly met with survivors yesterday, the National Hospital on Friday maintained a no-interview stance keeping an endless stream of journalists away from the wounded.

It said among the six patients, was a 12-year-old boy from Kebbi, in its care who had grievous injuries and the hospital wanted to spare them the strains of speaking to the media.