So sad!
Their school mates circulated the photos.
May their souls rest in peace.
JOS TWIN EXPLOSIONS: 7 Unijos medical Students, 15 Others Die In Blast
The University of Jos was,
yesterday, thrown into mourning when news hit the campus that a yet to be
ascertained number of students, including seven 500 level medical students died
in the bomb blasts on Tuesday. Meantime, both the university authorities and the
Police could not confirm the news at press time last night.
Investigation
revealed that most of the corpses taken to the hospital morgues were women and
children.
Officials also said that 15 of the
injured victims brought to the casualty unit died just before midnight.
Some findings were substantiated by an online medium, Premium
Times, which claimed that most of the corpses seen on the floor of the
mortuary were women and children, including seven pregnant women.
A hospital official said although
there were a few donors, who volunteered to donate blood, the hospital needed a
lot more to treat the victims.
“Yesterday (Tuesday), we had 15
persons who came and donated blood freely to the National Blood Transfusion; we
are calling for more donors”, he said.
Also, apart from the dead already in
the mortuary, Premium Times claimed that it counted at least 52 other
corpses on the floor of the hospital mortuary including that of a little child.
It said: “When PREMIUM TIMES
visited Plateau Specialist Hospital early hours of yesterday, an official
confirmed that 15 of the injured victims brought to the casualty unit died just
before midnight.”
The National Emergency Management
Agency (NEMA) had on Tuesday night said the casualty figure from the twin
explosions stood at 118.
However, a laboratory manager at the
National Blood Transfusion unit of the Plateau Specialist Hospital, said most
of the 15 victims died during treatment due to loss of blood.
The Plateau Police Commissioner,
Chris Olakpe, had said on Tuesday that the area would remain shut until the
police concluded its investigations and the debris were cleared.
Mr. Olakpe also explained that
corpses and the injured were taken to four hospitals.
These were the Plateau Specialist
Hospital, Bingham Hospital, Jos, as well as the new and the old (temporary
site) Jos University Teaching Hospital.
“When our correspondents visited the
hospitals, hundreds of families and friends were seen trying to locate remains
of their relatives or the injured ones.
A
500-level Medical Laboratory Science student of the University of Jos,
Christiana Paul said seven of her course mates died in the blast.
She said five of the corpses had
been found, two at the Plateau Specialist Hospital Mortuary. “The seven of them
are my course mates, we are in 500-level. They went to Terminus to shop and the
bomb caught up with them. Two bodies are here at the Plateau Specialist
Hospital Mortuary,” the student said in tears.
“Also at the mortuary of the Jos
University Teaching Hospital temporary site, which is adjacent to the blast
scene, the corpses, about 100, were piled upon themselves and thus difficult to
count.
The situation was similar at Bingham
University Teaching Hospital.”
In most of the hospitals visited,
officials declined comment as they were busy trying to attend to injured
victims.
However, a medical personnel at the
Jos University Teaching Hospital, JUTH, who pleaded not to be quoted, said
about 120 corpses were brought to the hospital, while injured persons were
rushed to the permanent site for medication.
Meanwhile, the Jos main market,
where the two explosions occurred in a spate of 15 minutes, remained closed
yesterday morning.
Also at the Plateau Specialist
Hospital, one Usman Adamu said he came to recover the body of his landlady, Amina.
He said the victim was at the market
to buy a dress for her brother’s daughter who is about to wed.
A cleric, Godwin Ejeh, of Kingdom
Dominion Chapel, Dadinkowa, said his 18-year old daughter, Shekina Ejeh, who
was sent to the market to buy groceries, died in the blast.
Keneng Choji, a civil servant, also
said she lost her daughter-in-law, two grandchildren, and a neighbour to the
explosion.
She said her daughter-in-law was a
fish trader at the market.
Some of the Muslims seen at the Plateau
Specialist Hospital were already taking the corpses of their relatives for
burial according to Islamic rites.
No group has claimed responsibility
for the blast although it is believed to have been carried out by the extremist
Boko Haram sect.
The group has killed thousands of
people since its insurgency began in 2009.
Meanwhile, authorities of the
University of Jos said, yesterday, that it was investigating the report that 16
of its students were among the dead in the twin bomb blasts on Tuesday in Jos which
claimed 118 lives and left over 100 others injured.
The Institution’s Deputy Registrar,
Information and Publicity, Mr. Steve Otowo said he could not confirm the
information as the institution was still investigating the issue.
Otowo said “I personally went
round the various hospitals yesterday but no such thing was recorded. The only
student at the Plateau State Specialist Hospital with the University of Jos as
his address was treated and discharged.
“I also learnt from a Medical
Laboratory Science student that seven of her course mates died in the blast.
She said five of the corpses had not been found but two were identified at the
Plateau Specialist Hospital Mortuary”.
Otowo maintained he visited the
temporary site of the Jos University Teaching Hospital where he saw two
unidentified corpses while the mortuary attendant said no corpse was registered
with the university as an address.
“We are still investigating and will
have the true picture by tomorrow (today)”.
Similarly, the State Commissioner
for Information and Communication, Barr. Olivia Dazyem who had earlier gone
round the hospitals where the victims were being treated told Vanguard
she was yet to confirm the report.
Her words: “I am yet to confirm it.
I got information that some UniJos students were passing around. Investigation
is on to confirm the authenticity of the claim. We will get the true picture
soon”.
However, investigations
earlier showed one Jimlong Dayol with “UJ” as his address though he was said to
have been discharged as he sustained minor injury.
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