By MARIE-THERESE NANLONG, JOS

Explosions in Jos, the Plateau State capital are not  strange to  residents  as they have one gory tale or the other to tell as a  result  of the recurring evil.

Some of the Jos blast victim receiving treatment

Following the ferocious manner bombs ravage the city, efforts have been intensified by government, security agencies, civil society organizations  and individuals to  check the trend.

The efforts seemed to pay off as the city did not experience bomb attacks after the one which occurred  in February.

But at the time residents felt  respite had come, the monster reared its head again as twin blasts ripped through  a restaurant along Bauchi Road and a mosque at Dilimi (Yan Taya) area of  Jos last Sunday.

Survivors are counting their losses while relatives of the dead are mourning their loved ones. Fear, again, has gripped residents who are wondering who will be the next victim.

A  visit to the Plateau State Specialist Hospital, Bingham University Teaching Hospital, Our Lady of Apostle, OLA Hospital all in Jos, on Friday, saw relatives of the victims besieging the hospitals to  see their loved ones on admission.

No fewer than 51 killed in the two attacks have been buried while about 42 others injured  are  being treated. As survivors counted their losses, miscreants took advantage of the situation to raze  two churches, the Cherubim and Seraphim, C&S and African Church,  while also threatening  to burn the nearby ECWA Goodnews Church.

A survivor, Mallam Audu Maiwula, narrated how he narrowly escaped being killed  in the Jos mosque attack, adding, “If your time never reach, nothing go take you.”

“I was in the mosque  until  about 8pm. Then I needed to get something from home; so I went to my house at Filin Sukwa.   As I was coming back, I heard a loud sound from Bauchi Road area; so I waited. Not quite long, gunshots rented the air before the second explosion came. I am sure I would have been affected as Alhaji Sani my friend that sat with me in the mosque  died”, he told Sunday Vanguard.

Isa Rabiu, a 40-year-old driver was not as lucky as Maiwula as he lost his life in the incident, according to his nephew, Mohammed Rabiu, who identified the uncle’s corpse at a  Jos hospital morgue. “It is a pity my uncle had to die this way,” Mohammed said.

“My uncle had a wife and five children, he had even started buying things gradually in preparation for the coming Sallah. We always went to the mosque together to listen to the ministrations, but I did not go that day because I travelled to Saminaka. “I came back immediately to see things for myself. This is not good because he was a father to all of us; with him gone, we are wondering what will happen to us, but Allah knows best.”

Lamenting the situation, the member representing Jos North/Bassa Federal Constituency, Hon. Suleiman Kwande, who lost 52 members of his constituency, said it was saddening.

Similarly, a former Secretary to Plateau State Government, Mr. Ezekiel Gomos, expressed sadness over the attacks  in the state as well as others by gunmen.