A victim of the Emab Plaza bomb blast in Abuja, Solomon Alli, on Friday narrated how a customer who bought a recharge card from him and paid with N500 note saved his life. He narrated his ordeal to Saturday Independent at Maitama General Hospital.
“A lady came to buy recharge card of N100 from me and paid me with N500 and I went to look for change. Before I came back the bomb had already exploded and she died at my desk. “When the bomb exploded, it threw me up and landed me on the ground.
“When the lady bought the recharge card of N100 and gave me N500, I was angry with her and asked her why she bought only 100 recharge card and paid with N500. “I then went to one woman we call Mama Mary who sells banana to ask her for change and when she was about to give me the change, the bomb exploded and she died immediately.
“I had some cuts on my leg and that is what I am being treated for. I could not sleep yesterday (Thursday) because of pains on the leg. “Even though I was angry with that lady that bought the N100 recharge card and paid with N500, God used her to save my life because assuming I was at my desk when the bomb exploded, I would have died just the way she died when she was waiting for me to bring her change. “Sometimes things happen that we do not understand.
Assuming that lady gave me N100 and collected her recharge card and left, who knows, I could not have been alive now. “I thank God that I only sustained injury and I am still alive.” According to Daily Independent, the Minister of Health, Onyebuchi Chukwu, has expressed satisfaction with the quality of care the bomb blast victims have been receiving. He commended the health workers when he visited the patients at Maitama, Wuse, National Hospital and Asokoro General Hospital on Friday.
“The quality of health care is good and I am happy,” he said. “We still have six patients who are still receiving treatment at the National Hospital, one is very critical in the intensive care unit. “As we know, all together, we have 21 deaths that include the two that died yesterday here. One from 90 percent burn. It is always very difficult to manage such cases. It is not too many persons in the world that can survive 90 per cent burns.
The second was severe multiple organ injury apart from the burns. He was operated on arrival, but he could not make it. “The quality of health care is standard. Of course the National Hospital is usually where we take the most serious cases to because of their facilities and their expertise. “We have only one patient in Wuse now when we visited. Most of them have either been discharged or referred to other hospitals. “There are 10 patients in Maitama. Some have been treated and discharged while some have