How poor banana sellers died in Abuja blast

Wednesday’s bomb blast at the ever-busy entrance of EMAB Plaza at Wuse 2, Abuja, claimed the lives of a driver, some women selling bananas, some cobblers and recharge card vendors, according to witnesses.

The spot where the blast occurred is usually strewn with mobile petty traders doing their business.

In terror attacks, the victim does not matter to the bombers. It is the inevitable publicity that arouses them.

A witness, Adamu Mohammed, said he escaped death by the whiskers as he had left for the mosque opposite the plaza to pray before the bomb went off.

He said: “The bomb claimed the lives of most the women selling bananas and recharge cards.

“I would have been dead, but thank Allah, as I left for the mosque to pray, that was when the blast occurred.

“It is a pity that lives are lost like this everyday in this country.”

A despondent man, Sani Aliyu, who had lost his driver in the blast, in between sobs would shout, “Our politicians will be busy talking and doing politics and Nigerians will be dying everyday.

“I have nothing to say to the press because if I talk they would not listen.

“Many people have been talking but there is no solution.

“Look at my driver. What did he do? Look at how they killed him.”

Another witness, Emmanuel Okala, said he was a few metres away from the plaza when the blast occurred.

“The blast threw me to the ground. I looked back and saw all the women selling bananas and recharge cards scattered on the ground.

“I joined the team of Federal Road Safety Corps officers who arrived later to evacuate the bodies. I helped to carry 10 bodies into the waiting vans”.

TheCable counted 15 dead bodies, but the police have put the figure of the dead at 21 and the wounded at 17.