BEN AGANDE, ABUJA.

For the family Joseph Kogi, 2016 Boxing Day celebrations may remain the most traumatic for them as their dream of having a remarkable event watching a family movie at a popular social centre in the Federal Capital Territory ended in a terrible nightmare. They were trapped in an elevator for over one hour before the management of the event centre was able to rescue them from the   apparently poorly maintained elevator. They were trapped with another family. It was one experience that the Kogi family will not even wish for even their enemies.

How did it begin? According to Mrs Rachael Mnenna Kogi, the journey to go and watch the movie as a family actually began on Christmas day when they went to the cinema house to watch a movie but had to shift it to the Boxing Day when they could not get a ticket on Christmas day. That decision resulted in the worst nightmare that they have ever had.

“On the 26th  of December which was a boxing day, we (my husband, all my Kids and I)had gone to watch a movie . We had gone on the 25th  but were late so we decided to make it on the 26th. We left home quite early but traffic into the premises was quite heavy. When we got in around 7pm, we got into the elevator to take us to the third floor, where the Cinema halls are located. Obviously, another family of about four persons was also going to watch movies so the lift operator pressed the button for the third floor. But rather than take us up to the third floor, the lift could not lift itself. We saw ourselves going down until we found ourselves at the basement in a very confined place with no space to manoeuvre” she said.

Since the lift operator was in the lift, the Kogi family and other occupants of the lift were confident that they would soon be rescued. But to their dismay, neither the alarm bell nor the telephone intercom was working so there was no way of reaching the outside world. Mrs  Kogi explained: “No one could come out. The alarm bell was faulty; there was no intercom to reach security. It was horrific. The security guy who was the guide or lift operator gave us a number he said was for the chief security officer but it was switched off. His own phone went dead. Help didn’t seem to be coming from any quarters. I pinched myself hard. I like watching   movies but never knew it would form my own story someday.”

•A family trapped in an elevator

With children trapped in the lift, there was justifiable panic.   Several options were being explored. But the more they tried, the more desperate the situation appeared.

She continued her story: “We kept looking for alternatives. Some persons thought of breaking the glass but we knew it was not possible. One man, probably the oldest,   was becoming more worried than others. My husband had to gently talk him into behaving more manly and being calm. One lady inside had a friend who was already at the movies and we called for her to go report to the security. The older man’s wife also called her son who they had asked to go back home and pick up their forgotten tickets. She asked him to go and report to any security official. It was quite scary. We tried opening the doors so that little air could filter in.”

With the help of the other lady who was already inside the cinema hall and one of the sons of the occupants in the trapped lift, help eventually came after about twelve people were trapped in the elevator for about an hour.

Mrs Kogi explained: “The calls paid off eventually and the team of security men and technicians set to work. We were pulled up manually and rather than drop us at the next floor, we were taken way up to the topmost floor. There, just before the door opened, the lift jerked as if it would start going down again. You needed to hear the screaming! As soon as the door flew open, we ran out. The technicians asked us to join the 2nd lift back to 3rd floor but all of us declined. . They assured us nothing would go wrong but in my mind I said, now we are all getting in(family plus technicians),if anything goes wrong, who will help or save who?  Somehow I just believed that help was going to come and in mind the only thing I was doing was talking to God. The kind of person I am is that I believe so much in my thoughts and the Bible even tells that life and death are in the power of the tongue” she said.

Although the family had no premonition about anything untoward as they went out that day, the mother of the house had a pang of guilt when she went through events that played out in her mind shortly before they went out.

“I said I had wanted a quiet Christmas, I wanted to just stay indoors, not really going out. So before that day I had told my kids that if they wanted to go out,    they were free to go with their daddy.

So at that point what was going through my mind was that if I had stayed at home and something happened to all of them, what life would I be living? I just felt that God wanted to deal with me, to tell me that next time don’t open your mouth and say things like that; so I started telling Him that I was sorry, that if it was because of what I said that I didn’t want to come out and I now ended up coming out that I was very sorry that He should please send help. So that was what was going through my mind at that time but somehow I knew that there would be a way out” she said.