Just like any other day, Jan 27th, 2002 will be a
day Lagosians will never forget in a hurry. It is a Sunday afternoon, just
after service, we all thought it's going to rain as there are thundering
sounds, I remembered my mom told me to go and pack the washed clothes inside
because it is about to rain, little did we know that calamity and wailings
await the center of excellence. 3000 were reported dead in the Oke Afa river of
the Ikeja cantonment. This is not to bore you, but to have a reflect on Ikeja
27th Jan., bombing in Lagos. See some of the pictures below...
According to an eye witness account that live a
stone thrown from the place, he said..
I remembered that Sunday very well. We were staying at Onigbongbo, Maryland, ikeja then. A terrible Sunday i can't forget in a hurry. We stayed on the 1st floor of a three storey building and very close to the cantonment-our street was actually sharing fence with the ikeja cantonment.
When the 1st explosion started, everyone ran outside the house to the balcony to observe what was happening, some were initially saying it was a petrol tanker that exploded. We could see thick black smoke rising from the far end and immediately with a loud deafening explosion, everywhere became dark, and the whole building started shaking. In the panic and confusion, we all ran in different directions, i ran to the backyard staircase hoping to jump but was not possible because at that instant, everywhere was darkened, with serious shakings-like an earthquake attack- i had to run back to the front corridor and managed to jump the flight of steps.
In the confusion, my mum jumped from the 1st storey and was dangling, holding the railings of the balcony, her legs swigging free ready to take a free fall of about 16 meters down. While hanging there, she was shouting for help but no body wanted to give any form of assistance because they were all running for their lives. on jumping through the flight of stairs down to the ground floor, i saw my mum dangling from the railings on the last floor (topmost floor), almost falling, I screamed and shouted, pleading with the running crowd to please assist me in rescuing my mum. I then ran back to the first floor, with two other men, one to the first floor with me and the other to the next floor. We took hold of her slipping hands while the other man held her legs to gradually lower her to the second floor.
It was a terrible day, our ceiling fan blades received the shock of the explosion and were bent outwards, louvers went breaking, falling out of windows, people running out of their homes. A particular man was actually taking his bath when the next explosion happened, with soap leather all over his body and head covered in soap, the man joined the mammoth crowd running towards the Onigbongbo Bus stop.We ran from Maryland through Mende, through a swampy area, God saved us too, cos we almost drowned if not for a military man that helped us climb on a rickety bridge floating over the swamp. Just as people ran into the Oke Afa swamp thinking it was land, many ran into this swamp too, but God had mercy on us (myself and my mum), we would have drowned too. On the other side of the almost dilapidated wooden bridge, we continued our "Isreali" journey, running without shoes to Alapere where my mum's Aunt stays. Even @ Alapere, people were still running, but we couldn't anymore cos we had no strength left in us after the whole experience.I can't recount everything here, it was too much to see, but thank God for saving us. For everyone whose lives were lost, I say may they rest in peace.January 27th, 2002, a day I will never forget.
See more photos after the cut...
No comments:
Post a Comment