‘I can’t find my brother’ – agonies of Jos blast victims’ relatives as death toll mounts

Residents on Wednesday besieged hospitals in Jos to search for their relations following Tuesday’s twin bomb blasts in the city.

Many people thronged the hospitals to locate relations who did not return home after the incident.

Plateau Commissioner of Police, Mr Chris Olakpe, confirmed 75 deaths on Wednesday, but the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) gave a figure of 118.

The casualty and mortuary sections of Plateau Specialist Hospital were filled with people searching for their relations.

Mr Chuks Ikemefuna said: “I have gone to almost all the hospitals but I have not seen my brother, Francis, who owns a shoe shop close to where the bomb exploded yesterday.

“I have checked the casualty wards but I didn’t see him, now I want to check the mortuaries in case he was killed.”

Dr Jemchang Fabong, Head, Casualty Unit, Plateau Specialist Hospital, told NAN that 52 corpses were brought to the hospital after the blast.

“Thirty-eight injured persons were brought to the hospital and three of them died.

“Some of those not critically injured have been treated and discharged while those we could not handle in the casualty have been taken to the theatre,” he said.

A victim, Mr John Chuwang, deputy public relations officer of Plateau Water Board, said that he was in the market to address some customers of the board.

Chuwang  said that immediately he alighted from the vehicle that took him to the market, he heard a bang after which something hit his leg.

“I saw people beside and in front of me falling dead but God saved me with only this wound on my leg,” he said.