By Chuks Ehirim/North
While survivors and their relatives continue to thank God for His mercies, the families and friends of those who died in the bomb blast in an Abuja bus station on April 14 are still counting their losses.
aOne of those still grieving, is Abigail Odoh, whose younger sister, Juliet Odoh, was among the dead. Abigail, a petty trader in Abuja, told TheNiche that the corpse of Juliet was only discovered at the National Hospital on April 17.
Juliet, a single mother, hailed from Ukehe, Enugu State. She was a sales girl in the city centre.
She had gone to the Nyanya park, Abuja to board a vehicle to work when the bombs were detonated.
Members of the Abuja branch of Ukehe Town Union began searching for her and even after discovering the corpse they were not allowed to collect it because they could not fill some forms, Abigail narrated.
The task of taking the body to Ukehe for burial became a burden on the union members who were saddled with the responsibility of raising the funds.
Though the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) undertook to write off the feeding and hospital bills of the survivors, there was no word on government assistance to bury the dead.
Ukehe Town Union Chairman in Abuja said they did not hear “any response from the government in that regard. These people who died were Nigerians and it was not their making that they met this type of cruel fate.
“We expect that just as the government is assisting the survivors who are still in various hospitals, they should also come to the assistance of the relations of those who died, in giving them decent burial.”
He said they would do everything humanly possible to give Juliet a decent burial “but we expect that the government would also play its part in assisting those left behind by the victims of this dastardly act of terrorists.
“There are obvious lapses in our security network and this is unfortunate. One would assume that security agencies in Nigeria should curtail the menace of terrorists in the country.”
The indigenes of Isiekenesi in Imo State who are resident in Abuja, were also thrown into mourning over the death of Ebere Eze, who was said to be at the park that morning but has not been seen since.
Isiekenesi Development Union Chairman in Abuja, Chuks Nwagbo, told TheNiche that his members had searched hospitals in the city but had not traced the light skinned young man.
A text message sent to the union members read: “Please treat as urgent. Prior to the issue concerning one of us, Ebere Eze, who is yet to be found after the Nyanya bomb blast on (April 14).
“We shall all be gathering in his residence tomorrow, Good Friday, April 18 by 12 noon, opposite Saint Peter Catholic Church, Mopol Junction, Nyanya. Please be comforted.”
Members of the Abuja branch of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) were not spared the grief.
A young man, Jonathan Odeh, who worked at the NUJ bar, died in the blast.
