Retrieving bomb victim’s dead body ‘is pure hell’

Losing your loved one to terrorists’ bomb is one problem ─ retrieving the body for burial is another.

‎The late managing editor (north) of the New Telegraph, Mr. Suleiman Bisala,‎ who died in Wednesday’s blast in Abuja, was buried on Thursday in Abuja ─ but that does not tell the whole story.

His leader brother, Mohammed, narrated the traumatic experience of claiming the body for burial. The process started at 7am and ended at 3pm.

It could still have been on but for the intervention of the police spokesman, Frank Mba, an assistant commissioner of police.

Mohammed said it was “demoralising and painful”.

He narrated his experience: “‎To start with as a Muslim you accept that death is an act of God. It was destined he will go that way that way.

“Today, ‎I was at the hospital from 7am to retrieve his body for burial and we did not succeed until 3pm. Then we took the corpse to the National Mosque for prayers before we came to bury him here at Gudu cemetery.

“We had thought the body would be released immediately. In fact when we got to the hospital we were thinking they would release the corpse to us immediately so that we would bury him according to Islamic injunction.

“But unfortunately they told us that we had to go to the police station to obtain a police report and bring it to the hospital before they would release the corpse.

“On reaching the police station it was entirely different thing all together. The process is so long. We waited there. They came to the mortuary to snap his corpse, printed his picture, filled a form and attached it and took it to the magistrate court for stamping and then brought it back to the hospital.

“On finishing that one, we were thinking that was all but they then said the corpse belongs to the federal government. That we have to go to police command again to report to them ‎and obtain a clearance before we come and take him.

“We were lucky that one of our colleagues knew Frank Mba. So he really did a very good thing for us. He assisted us. I joined him in his car and we drove to the police command‎ and we requested that the body should be released to us. We met the deputy commissioner of police there. He gave us approval and we went to the CID and they were doing a lot of things. In fact, it was not easy.

“Presently there are three corpses in the mortuary. I don’t know if those people know any big people that they can talk to, to go through this process that we have gone through. Certainly they will not release the corpses to them today. So we are appealing to the authorities in charge to make things easy for people, especially Muslims, that whenever something like this happens we don’t like to leave corpses for days in the mortuary before we bury.

“If we can be given the opportunity that immediately somebody dies the federal government should release the corpse to us. So that we can go and bury him, then any other documentation will follow thereafter.  We are not interested in making a case. Frank Mba was telling me that they have to do documentation in the event that those who planted these bombs are arrested, they can be questioned based on the evidence.

“I won’t like to go through this again because we started this since in the morning around 7 o’clock see the time we are burying him (about 5 pm).”

He also took time to speak about his brother, who used to work with Daily Trust newspaper.

He said: “The vacuum he left will be difficult to fill. He gives to people at will. He empties his pocket just to meet the needs of people. He was planning to go to the village to share stuff ahead of the Ramadan fasting Friday.

“We were always in touch.  He is the fourth after me. We were of the same father. We used to call each other often but I used to call often as the elder brother. I saw him last on Thursday, a week today.

“He had one wife, five children three girls and two boys.  ‎They will move to the village today and stay for until the seven days prayer before returning to Abuja because the children are in school and we won’t want to delay them.

“It was his wife that told me he was involved in the blast at EMAB Plaza. I called his number and some people picked and told me they have rushed people to the hospital. I rushed to Maitama hospital to look for him at the emergency ward. When I didn’t see him there I went to the mortuary. He was among the dead whose bodies were not mangled and I identified him. So I prayed for him there.”

Bisala was 46 at the time of his death.

Photo of Bisala’s burial courtesy Metropole.ng