A VICTIM and survivor of last week’s explosion at the Karu Bridge Junction of the Abuja-Keffi highway who is on his hospital bed at the National Hospital, Abuja on Saturday narrated his ordeal revealing that many of the people who initial came to the scene of the accident were rather more interested in taking photos and recording videos of the accident.
The survivor, Mr Clement Onu, in an interview with National Record on his hospital bed on Saturday, gave a traumatic and chilling narrative of how he cheated death in an escaped that is literally by a whisker’s breadth.
According to Onu, who is in his mid-60s, the commercial vehicle he and his friend along with other passengers took from the city was in front of the truck that orchestrated the multiple accidents due to break failure. He said his friend, Ajekondu Igoche Adams, did not survive.
“We were in front of the truck, there were some vehicles in between us and the truck. We started hearing the sound of bashing of cars from behind us – gbosaa, gbosaa, gbam, gbam. Before we knew what was happening, our vehicle was bashed from behind and the impact pushed our vehicle forward, hitting another truck in our front and then skidded off the road kerb before it turned on its side,” Onu stated.
Escaping from burning vehicle
Onu, who said he was seated on the front passenger side along with two others beside the driver, said as the vehicle turned on its side, the two other passengers fell on him.
“I was seated in front seat of the vehicle by the window side with two others. As the vehicle turned on its side, the two other passengers fell on me, I don’t know if those people survived, but I know the driver survived.
“I struggled to come out of the vehicle but I could not move the door as it was blocked by the kerb. It was also then that I noticed that I couldn’t move as I wanted, although I did not realise at that point that I had dislocation at my hip, and there were two people on top of me. But I struggled to move the people on me, I didn’t know whether they were dead or not but I mustered enough energy to move from under them,” Onu said.
According to him, when he managed to extricate himself from the weight of those who fell on him, he saw that the windscreen was cracked and he took advantage of that to hit the glass to shatter it.
“As I moved those on me, I saw that the windscreen was cracked and I took advantage of that to use my hands to push the glass and succeeded in pushing it out. I sustained some cuts on my hands as a result of this. After this, I started thinking that I have to struggle to get out, knowing that the vehicle was already on fire from behind.
Rolling and crawling from the inferno
Onu also narrated how he escaped from the vehicle which was already burning, stressing that soon after he rolled across the road, the car exploded.
“I told myself that if I don’t manage to get out and the vehicle exploded, my people will not see my dead body. I thought that it will be better I move outside so that my body could be found.
“That gave me additional strength and I pushed myself on to the bonnet and strained to throw myself from the bonnet to the ground. I then thanked God that I have achieved my aim and that if I died there, I would be found.
“As I lay on the ground, the heat from the fire was equally increasing and I couldn’t stand to walk. I asked myself, why can I not roll if I can’t walk?
“So, I started rolling from the road divider where the car was burning and fell off to the road and I rolled across to the gutter. Soon after, the vehicle exploded.”
Many people more interested in taking photos, videos
While noting that many of those who rushed to the scene were unfortunately more interested in taking pictures and videoing the accident scene than rescuing victims, he however narrated how two Hausa boys saved him from the impact of the explosions that followed.
“When I was struggling to come out of the vehicle and was shouting and begging people to help me, many people were more interested in snapping pictures and videoing.
“Luckily, as I rolled across the road and into the gutter, there were two Hausa boys who I manage to appeal to when one of them said this Baba is alive. I then said to them in Hausa; ‘I beg you in the name of Almighty God, please, help me.’ They lifted me and took me away from the area and immediately they were putting me down, there was another mighty explosion, and they ran away.
“In fact, some of the particles from the explosion also fell on me where I lay on the ground.”
Onu said he somehow anticipated the explosion even while trapped in the vehicle, the reason he struggled to come out and tried to get away as far as possible.
He said: “I expected the explosion, at least from the tyres and more so the vehicle fuel tank, at least from experience and what I had read, I knew explosions like that happen during accidents, so I started rolling again and crawling to move farther away where I again saw two other Hausa boys who I begged to help me get keke or okada to take me to hospital. They helped lifted me onto Okada that took me to the Customs Hospital, Karu.
“It is a terrible experience. My friend with whom I went to the city in the morning, and was returning with in the evening in the same vehicle, died. He was sitting at the back of the vehicle. He may have been impacted so much. From the picture of his body I saw, part of his body was also burnt and it was like he had a terrible fracture on his neck and head.”
Onu stated that despite the desperation and agony of the victims, he was surprised that some people came to the scene of the accident with the intention to rob them. According to him, while his mobile phone and a file containing documents were left inside the vehicle and burnt, the wrist watch he wore, which on him as he escaped from the vehicle, was stolen, and that as he laid on the ground writhing in pain, some people searched him but were unable to extract his wallet from his trousers pocket because he laid on it.
He said the following morning after he was stabilised at the Customs Hospital, he was referred to the Orthopaedic ward of the National Hospital for specialist attention when he was diagnosed with fracture of the hip.
He said at the Orthopaedic ward of the National Hospital, it was discovered that the ball joint had pulled out from the socket and in the course of his movements, he had cracked or fractured some of the bones and socket in the hip area.
He told National Record that doctors told him that while the ball joint has successfully been pushed back into the socket, there was still the possibility of surgery to repair damages that might have been caused around the hip region.
He stated that to help set the bones and hold them firmly in place, a 20kg object had been fixed on his leg.
Government yet to pick the bill as promised, but…
Asked if the federal government, through the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Mr Nyesom Wike, was picking the hospital bills of victims including his, Onu said every drug administered so far were paid for by him.
He however said the government may likely later refund all expenses upon tendering of receipts.
