BY JOHN BULUS

If Mr. Gorge Onyemaechi had an inkling that his surname “Onyemaechi” literary meaning, “Who knows Tomorrow” would turn to be a question he doesn’t have answers to, he probably would have hesitated a while before attending the special Church service on Thursday, January 5, 2012 or better still, would not attend.

But either way, he did not regret going to commune with his God. He is one of the many Igbo men who left the east for the north in search of greener pastures.

His own destination was Gombe, the Gombe State capital. But his case was very peculiar in some respects. Mr. Onyemaechi who hails from Enugu State can hardly be differentiated from the core indigenes of the Gombe State. Reasons: He lives, works (trades) and speaks Hausa language to an appreciable point. His wife, children and in fact, entire family lives with him in the state.

He is 55 years of age and came to Gombe even before the creation of the State in 1996. As a trader on second-hand clothes, he shuttles between Gombe State capital, Kumo in Akko Local Government Area and also, extends his itinerary to Biliri and Kaltungo Local Government Areas of the State in a bid to make ends meet. To him, living in the North is the same as in the east or elsewhere in Nigeria. But Thursday, last week, hell visited him and his wife.

It was still New Year and the euphoria of the time called for doxology to God. And Mr. Onyemaechi, an ardent member of Deeper Life Church had gone to worship God in the company of his family and behold, he never left the church the same way he came. He ended up in the Federal Medical Centre, Gombe where he has been receiving treatment. His wife too ended up in the same hospital.

Indeed, Onyemaechi and his wife were victims of the dastard shooting at the Deeper Life Church located around Nasrasawo area of Gombe Metropolis that was visited by the members of the Boko Haram.

Boko Haram members in action

He told Saturday Vanguard that the incident has left his lower abdomen shattered, fiercely threatening his private –part; his chest is badly wounded with bullet wounds and his left upper arm broken as well as several other parts of his body.

His wife is in critical health condition. He said the church was in the middle of a prayer session when suddenly, gunshots engulfed the arena. The rest of the story, he said, was told to him when he regained consciousness in the hospital.

Though he is recuperating now, he still has bandages around him to prevent the flow of blood. He was operated upon to evacuate the bullets in his body. Though he is battling with life , he is still grateful to God that he is alive. And because, he and his wife are currently on admission, his children are now being taken care of by his son-law.

While the Onyemaechis were lucky, the resident Pastor, Mr. Johnson Jaura was not. His wife was among the victims that died instantly in the dusk attack. They were eight. Sources said the death toll has reached ten as two more persons had also died in the hospital.

In an interview, the pastor told journalists how the incident happened.

“I lost my wife during the gun shots when they opened fire on us through the window of the church. They were in large number when they attacked us and I cannot ascertain their number, because we just began hearing gunshots inside the church and everybody within began to run for safety,” he said.

According to Mr. Juaro, the attackers came with sophisticated weapons and shot sporadically into the air to herald their arrival.

According to Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) sources, five persons who didn’t get lucky in the shooting included Major Meshach M., Godwin Udoh, Saleh Buka, Chinedu Chime and Blessing Chime . While they were taken to the FMC, Gombe, the other 3 persons were deposited at the mortuary of the State Specialist Hospital, Gombe.

Also, the life of Mr. Alade John Olarewaju, a youth corps member with the registration number GM/11c/0977 who hails from Isanlu, Isin in Kwara State, serving with the church was snuffed out of him.

One of the worshippers and eye witnesses of the incident, Amuche Silas who lost her brother during the attack told Saturday Vanguard at the Gombe Specialist Hospital where she was still attending to her parents who also sustained injuries from bullet wounds during the attack said she was still to come to terms with the impart of the incident.

According to her, “we were observing a Revival Service and the prayer session that was supposed to end by 8:00 pm when all of a sudden, while people were standing and I was sitting down, I started seeing people falling down on me as I heard sporadic gunshots. I also lay down and tried to crawl to the culvert because I was sitting at the door”.

Meanwhile, the State Governor, Alhaji Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo who visited the place in the company of the State Chapter of CAN chairman, Rev. Abare Kallah and other government dignitaries on last Friday expressed shock and condemned the attack on Christians. He promised to absorb the medical bills of the survivors and also elected to assist in the burial of those that lost their lives.

Governor Dakwambo was particularly concerned about the security lapses, which he said should be a challenge to the government and ordered the security agencies to fish out and bring the culprits to justice, saying that the attack was a strange development to the state that has always known peace.

The CAN Chairman who came close to tears at the occasion however asked the Christians in his prayer for the state and country not to be discouraged in their Christian lives by the ugly incident: “the light we have been preaching would not stop because it is what we have been given while we are alive to eternity, no death, no threat, no demons, no gunshots would separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus”.

Expectedly, the attack was the handiwork of the dreaded Boko Haram, an Islamic religious sect who later claimed responsibility of the attack as said by the “spokesman” Abul Qaqa who told journalists on last Friday that “we are responsible for the attacks in Mubi and Gombe”.

The attack came barely a day after the expiration of the order given by Boko Haram to Christians resident in the Northern states of the country to vacate the north and barely a week after the Federal Government imposed an Emergency Rule in some Local Governments areas in the four States of the North including Borno States which has a common boundary with Gombe.

Boko Haram through their “spokesman”, Abul Qaqa had reacted to the Emergency Rule declaration saying, “We find it pertinent to state that soldiers will only kill innocent Muslims in the local government areas where the state of emergency was declared. We would confront them squarely to protect our brothers,” he told journalists in a phone conference.

Speaking in the Hausa language, Qaqa said, “We also wish to call on our fellow Muslims to come back to the north because we have evidence that they would be attacked. We are also giving a three-day ultimatum to the southerners living in the northern part of Nigeria to move away”.

Saturday Vanguard can report that this is actually the first time, Gombe, a state which hitherto has not known any violent killings since the eruption of Boko Haram in 2009 will come under such a heavy attack in which Christians are targeted. The state has been known for its religious tolerance.

But the peace of the state has been smeared and has seriously raised apprehension in the air especially in the early days after the gruesome murder. But as at the time of filing the report, calm is gradually returning to Gombe metropolis and the state, at large.