The series of explosions that rocked the Federal Capital Territory in the last two weeks appear to have taken toll on its health facilities as some of the hospitals in the territory rejected victims of Thursday’s bomb blast at Nyanya, a satellite community within the FCT, which left 30 people dead and many others injured.
The blast, which was believed to be a suicide attack, occurred around 8:45pm when a bomb-laden car exploded at the Karshi Taxi Park, a few metres from where the April 14, 2014 explosion took place.
The tragic May Day blast was the second in the nation’s capital in 17 days. The first one, which occurred on April 14, killed 75 people while hundreds were injured and admitted in various hospitals in Abuja. The explosion rocked the Nyanya Motor Park.
Saturday PUNCH learnt that some victims were sent back when they were brought to hospitals on Friday morning.
At the Asokoro General Hospital, Abuja, victims were turned back due to lack of bed spaces. Our correspondent, who was at the hospital, observed that some patients were sent back when they were brought to the hospital on Friday morning.
For example, a woman, who was brought to the Accident and Emergency Unit of the hospital in a Honda Odysseycar with registration number BM 837RBC, was not allowed to be brought down from the vehicle.
The old lady, who was lying at the back seat of the car, was feeling uncomfortable as the driver of the car was speaking with the officials of the hospital.
After a few minutes of fruitless discussion, he drove out of the compound, in search of another hospital.
Our correspondent observed that nearly all the government hospitals in the city were fully occupied. At the Wuse General Hospital, all the bed spaces were occupied.
Meanwhile, the Asokoro General Hospital has spelt out the procedure that relations of victims involved in the bomb blast should follow in order to collect the corpses of their relations.
Our correspondent, who visited the hospital on Friday morning, saw an official of the hospital addressing grieving relations of victims on the procedure to be followed.
The slim lady, who came out of the mortuary, said she had taken the photographs of all the victims inside the mortuary.
While showing the pictures to the relations, who wailed after seeing the pictures of their dead loved ones, the lady who refused to reveal her name, asked the relations to go home and bring pictures of their identified relations.
After this, she said the picture must be taken to the Asokoro Police Station for documentation.
She said that the police would, in turn, give the relations of the victims clearance before coming to the hospital to claim their corpses.
A relation of one of the victims, after identifying the corpse, wailed uncontrollably, wondering how the news would be broken to the wife.
“What are we going to tell his wife? How are we going to do this for God’s sake? Where are we heading to now?” the middle aged man, who gave his name as Emeka said.
Also, President Goodluck Jonathan, in Abuja, on Friday, ordered the closure of all government-owned offices and schools in the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, except those on essential services.
A terse statement issued on Friday night in Abuja by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator Anyim Pius Anyim, said the measure was to ensure “free flow of traffic” and the successful hosting of the World Economic Forum.
According to him, private organisations with large number of staff may also wish to close down.
He said,
“This is to inform the general public that the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, has approved, as part of arrangements for the successful hosting of the World Economic Forum Africa, that all government offices and schools in the Federal Capital Territory, except those on essential services, are to be closed from Wednesday, 7 to Friday, 9 May, 2014.
Private organisations with large number of staff may also wish to close down. This is to ease the flow of traffic within the city and enable participants to carry out their assigned roles and participate actively at the World Economic Forum Africa.”
But Presidency sources said the decision might have been premised on security reports following the bombing of Nyanya, a satellite community within the FCT by suspected members of the Boko Haram Islmaic sect twice within two weeks.
Meanwhile, the Yoruba socio-political group, Afenifere, has urged President Jonathan to sack the Minister of Defence, Gen. Aliyu Gusau (retd.) and the National Security Adviser, Col. Sambo Dasuki (retd.).
The spokesperson for the group, Mr. Yinka Odumakin, made this call on Friday in an interview with Saturday PUNCH while commenting on the Thursday bomb blast in Nyanya, Abuja.
Odumakin stated this just as the Peoples Democratic Party urged Nigerians to jettison parochial interests and fight terrorism.
Commenting on the blast, which killed 30 people, Odumakin said that the minister and the NSA should do their jobs.
He said that it had become obvious that insurgency had become a political weapon.
Odumakin recalled that when the late Gen. Andrew Azazi (retd.) was the NSA, anytime there was a blast, northern leaders would call for his sacking.
He stated,
“The Minister of Defence and the NSA are not doing their jobs. If they fail to step up (their work), the President should fire them. If they are not doing their jobs, the President should consider replacing them.”
Odumakin said that the spate of insurgency and other violence in the country was not abating.
He stated,
“Things are getting worse. Everybody is talking about the President. It is the duty of the President to assemble people that will work. It is not the President that will do their work for them.”
On its part, the PDP urged Nigerians to cooperate with government by exposing terrorists, noting that the ordinary people had remained the victims of insurgency in the country.
The PDP National Publicity Secretary, Olisa Metuh, in a statement on Friday, said Nigerians must realise that the citizenry had generally become targets irrespective of religious and ethnic differences.
He said,
“Nigerians must realise that it is no longer about the President or the government, neither is it about government officials; all Nigerians are under attack. Ordinary people and regular citizens have remained general targets of these enemies of our country.
“Hundreds of innocent Nigerians, Muslims and Christians alike, have had their lives brutally ended by the wicked acts of these terrorists. Our people, businessmen and women, professionals, including security men, doctors and nurses, lawyers, artisans, market women, civil servants, farmers, school children, clerics, artistes, old men and women and bread winners pursuing legitimate endeavours have been brutalized and slaughtered.
“Those behind these devilish acts seek mainly to intimidate, cow, frighten and destroy us thereby imposing a regime of terror, anarchy and chaos.
“They seek to decimate us as a people, destroy our common heritage and bring our nation to its knees, but they will surely fail. They cannot intimidate us, we shall not be cowed, we refuse to be frightened and we will not be destroyed. Let them know that our common resolve to live as one people under God remains irrevocable.”
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