Mr Iroegbu, recalls his close shave with death

  

“QUOTED FROM HIM”

   It was an unusual morning in several ways; very unusual because it is not often part of my daily routine to head to the office in the early hours of the day instead of going to the field to monitor news events and return to the newsroom later in the evening to file my reports. Nevertheless, I decided to get to the office first in order to review the papers and afterwards head to my beat for the activities of the day. I however used the opportunity to fix my car’s Tyre, which was flat, while reading papers and surfing the internet for both local and international news. While waiting for the Tyre to be fixed, I suddenly heard a loud explosion, which threw me off balance.

Instinctively, I tried to escape through the back door but the impact of the explosion was massive and I crawled under a nearby desk. I lay still for a second; confused and dazed wondering what could have caused the explosion, which was both dramatic and unreal to me. I must have lost consciousness, because I only became conscious that some broken glasses, ceiling materials, dusts and smoke began to descend on me before I made an instinctive escape out of the building.

While outside the building, I watched in horror how the roof was flying in the midst of the dark smoke that had by then enveloped the building with shattered glasses all over the place. My third instinctive move was to drive my car, which was very close to the burning building, to a safer place, afraid that it might explode. Having successfully done that without having any slightest idea that I was hurt, I headed back to the building to retrieve my laptop and other items in order not to lose any information after my laptop of three and a half years was stolen from my car two weeks ago.

With my laptop retrieved but damaged, I decided to move away from the premises after discovering some minor cuts on my lower arm and the back of my head close to my ear lobe.  Traumatized and confused about the next line of action, I tried to make the final escape from the building but was stopped by the sudden discovery that one of my colleagues was lying in a pool of blood; and that the back exit gate had been shattered by the suicide bombers and was now on fire.

I yelled for help from people from the Utako Motor Park who were now charging towards the front gate, which had been permanently locked for over two months now as part of the security measures. They were able to force the gate open, enabling me to drive with pains to the hospital while manoeuvrings through the sea of touts who were banging on my car with others making their way into the burning premises in apparent move to either help or grab what they could.

It was later at the Kings Care Hospital, Wuse 2, where I had gone to receive treatment at the emergency and accident ward that I saw another THISDAY staff member whose skin had been peeled off by the blast. I also learnt that two or three persons at the back gate through where the suicide bombers made their entry into the THISDAY premises had died on the spot. I give thanks to the Almighty who made it possible for me to be alive, as I never thought that I could escape the attack.