UN House blast survivors relive horror
* A loud bang and we went blank!
By OKEY NDERIBE & VICTORIA OJEME
We heard a loud noise. And within a twinkle of an eye, the ceiling fell on our heads. There was confusion everywhere. We were in a meeting when the bomb went off”.
With these words, Mrs. Patience Etukudo, a staffer of the World Health Organisation (WHO),
who survived the Friday bombing at the United Nations (UN House), Abuja, relived her experience of the incident.
She spoke yesterday as she lay in excruciating pains at the National Hospital ward where she was receiving treatment for the injuries she sustained in the explosion.
Another survivor at the hospital, who gave his name as Mr. Felix, said: “I heard a loud bang, and I went blank.”
He was not the only victim who went blank. Illya Gambo suffered a similar experience. She said: “I work in the Nigerian Clinic at the UN House. I noticed some sound on the ground floor and I wanted to go and see what was going on. That is how I found myself in hospital”.
Mr. Douglas, also hospitalised on account of the bombing, told Sunday Vanguard: “I was at the second gate (of the UN House) scanning machine. Before I heard the noise, the (suicide bomber) vehicle had already entered the gate. And I remember falling, from the impact of the blast. That is all I could remember before I went unconscious”.
A relation of a victim, who gave her name as Mrs. Victoria Ugor, also told Sunday Vanguard that her niece, a medical student in the United Kingdom (UK) who was visiting the UN House but got caught in the bombing, was in critical condition at the National Hospital.
According to her, the victim was in the UN House to look for materials for her master’s degree thesis.
“As I am talking to you now, they have not allowed us to see her. She is in the intensive care unit. She is unconscious. She is 21 years old. All I have to say is that this is a very terrible situation. It is our turn today, we don’t know who is next”.
If Etukudo, Felix, Douglas and Gambo survived, a lift operator at the UN House was not as lucky.
The operator, identified as C.Y. Adeshina, one of the deceased victims, had his head shattered by the impact of the blast.
“Our lift operator at the UN building who was called CY Adeshina had his head cut off by the impact of the bomb blast”, said Habib Kori, a media associate with the United Nations Fund for Population Activities, UNFPA, while speaking to Sunday Vanguard, yesterday. .
She continued with emotion: “People used to call him my boy because he used to call me mummy; now he is dead”.
She continued: “The lift itself was destroyed by the impact of the blast. What is left where it used to be is a hole”.
She further said that the bomb went off at the ground floor of the massive structure which houses 26 UN departments in the country.
Other eye witnesses confirmed that the attack was carried out by a suicide bomber.
Kori told Sunday Vanguard that she lost many colleagues in the blast including foreigners and local UN staff, receptionists and security officials working at the building.
As the media associate spoke, she pointed to a woman who had come to check on her husband who was a UN staff.
According to her, ”Nobody has the courage to tell the woman the true condition of her husband when he was carried out of the building half-dead.”
Kori said she was attending a meeting with her UNFPA colleagues to enable them meet a September 20 deadline which had been given to them by the New York headquarters of the global body when the bomber struck.
She continued: “The assignment at hand had to do with our work on reproductive health and we were having a meeting on how to complete our work when the blast occurred.
“There was the first blast, the second one and then the smoke that enveloped the entire building”.
‘How we cheated death’
She narrated that at that stage, all of them who were attending the meeting had to run for their dear lives.
“We were all covered by the rubble from the ceiling in the fourth floor”.
Another UN employee who identified himself as Shasere Abayomi said he narrowly missed being killed by the blast.
“Myself and two other colleagues were returning from a place where we went to have our breakfast when I decided to buy recharge card for my phone from a nearby vendor”, Abayomi said.
He stated that it was while he was buying the recharge card that he heard the sound of the blast.
He added: “My two colleagues were killed by the bomb attack. If I was with them, I would have been dead too”.
The employee explained that one of the security men who wanted to stop the bomber was crushed to death as he was run over by the bomb-laden car.
According to him, the bomber successfully went through the first and second gates of the UN building before his deadly cargo went up cutting him up into three and killing several other people in the premises.
The blast practically brought activities in most government ministries, departments and agencies to a stand-still. An atmosphere of fear pervaded the Federal Secretariat when news of the bomb attack filtered in.
For instance, at the Ministry of Labour and Productivity, a meeting between the Minister Chief Emeka Wogu and a visiting representative of the International Labour Organization (ILO), Mr Salazar Jose, fixed for 2 p.m. was called off. The Assistant Director of Information at the Ministry, Mr Sam Olowookere, informed journalists who had been invited to cover the event that it was called off due to the bomb blast. This was understandable since the ILO is an affiliate of the UN.
Sunday Vanguard sources said yesterday that the death toll from the bombing had gone up to 19 from the 18 the police declared on Friday.
Already, the Islamic fundamentalist sect Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the attack on the UN building.
UN sets up 24-hour emergency helpline, says 9 staffer dead
Meanwhile, the Nigeria UN Country Team said yesterday that nine of its staff died in the explosion, just as it was assessing the full impact of the attack while continuing with its efforts to ensure that the people affected receive medical care and support.
“The UN House in Abuja includes 26 United Nations agencies and about 400 staff. The bomb, which occurred at approximately 1020 am on Friday 26 August, caused extensive damage to the entire building”, the global body said in a statement.
A survivor...
“The UN is still assessing the human toll. Nine UN staff members are confirmed dead and many dozens are hospitalized with injuries. This figure does not include the deaths of any non-UN staff including security and visitors. The casualty numbers may change as the UN continues its assessment and more information flows in from hospitals, staff and their families.
“These deaths and injuries are a grievous blow to the UN family and our national partners. We have lost motivated, bright, selfless people who were working only for the good of Nigeria and the world. Our priority now is to ensure those who are injured and the families of those who died are cared for,” said Agathe Lawson, the acting Resident Coordinator for the UN System in Nigeria in the statement.
“Our second and urgent priority is to ensure the UN operations continue. We will not be deterred in our mission to work to improve the lives of Nigerians. This is why we are here.”
In order to provide information to staff and their families, the UN Nigeria office, the statement said, has established a 24-hour Emergency Helpline. UN counsellors, according to the statement, will operate four phone lines to provide staff and their families information and initial counseling viz:
1 0810 0154 645
2. 0810 0154 646
3. 0810 0154 650
4. 0810 0154 651
Blood for victims
IN the meantime, the Minister of State, Foreign Affairs, Professor Viola Onwuliri, yesterday, called on Nigerians to donate blood for the blast victims.
The Minister of Interior, Abba Moro, also said the people behind the spate of bombings in the country would not go unpunished.
The two ministers spoke to Sunday Vanguard at the National Blood Transfusion Services, Abuja Office, where they claimed to have come to heed the government call to donate blood for the blast victims.
