EMAB blast: Woman still searching for husband

Mrs Uche Ojeh, the mother of a victim of the EMAB plaza bomb blast at Wuse 2, Abuja, is still searching for her husband three weeks after.

Ojeh whose son, Michael, sustained wounds in the blast has lost all hope of reuniting with her “forgotten” husband who was at the site of the blast on June 25.

Ojeh, amid sobs, had told TheCable, a day after the blast, that her husband, a taxi driver, had not been seen and that her son too was wounded in the blast.

She had narrated: “Yesterday, I got a call from somebody who said that my son was involved in the blast, and that I should come to Maitama District Hospital. I left what I was doing and hurriedly went to the hospital. And truly, I saw my son with a deep cut in his head and leg. “I tried calling his father, but his phone was switched off. We later went to the mortuary to check if his body was there, but we did not find him.

“We suspect he was caught up in the unfortunate incident because his taxi was badly burnt. We have searched some hospitals, but we have not found him. His brother and my older son are still searching for him. I don’t know what to do. What will I do now? Where do I go to?”

Her older son, Chukwudi, who spoke with TheCable on Friday said that the family had been to the ministry of health to make inquiries about the corpse of Rufus, their father, but the ministry had not been able to give them any useful information.

He said: “We have been to the ministry of health countless times to inquire about the corpse of my father but the ministry has not been able to give us any useful information.

“We have gone round all the hospitals, and we still have not found him. The ministry says that there are some badly burnt corpses that have not been identified. They say  autopsies will be performed on the bodies, but it is like they don’t have the equipment.

“We were asked to go to the ministry of health to make complaints after searching in hospitals where the dead and the wounded were taken to without finding the body of my father.

“They even suggested that they might take the corpses abroad for autopsy. The ministry has not given us any concrete answer. It is sad, because we don’t have closure.

“We appeal to the government to come to our aid because there are so many things we cannot do anymore because the head of our family is not there. How do we pay the rent? We beg the government to come to our aid.”