Senator Iroegbu is an editorial staff of ThisDay Newspapers who happened to be in the headquarters of the media house at the time it was bombed on Thursday. He told CHRISTIAN OKEKE how he escaped from the scene.

‘I Saw My Colleague In A Pool Of Blood’

In situations like what happened on Thursday in your office, one may not recollect every thing, but what can you recall, as per how you cheated death?

Well, first of all, I give thanks to God who saved me. What I can recall is that I jumped under the desk when I heard the explosion. I was initially confused; you know when such a thing happens and someone is always taken unawares. I also remember seeing pieces of glass flying in all directions. That made me to run outside.

So when you got up, what did you do?

Initially I was confused. I saw smoke behind our office. But I was able to rush to drive my car.

But we gathered that it was just a gate that was used prior to the blast, that is the back gate?

Yes, our front gate had been locked for a month now or so because of security threats. It was some people from the motor park opposite us, that is Jabi park, that really came and forced the gate open to help evacuate survivors. I recall seeing one of my colleagues in a pool of his own blood. I even thought that I was lucky before I later realised I had cuts.

Definitely, there was no premonition that evil was in the offing that day?

No, of course. I woke up as usual and had my prayers, but I can say that it was quite very unusual, that morning. I prefer going to the field first to monitor news events after which I will definitely get to the office to file my reports. In fact, it is not often my daily routine to get to the office in the early hours of the day. But on that fateful day, I decided to get to the office first. I wanted to review the papers. At a point, I decided to use same opportunity to fix my flat tyre. It was while waiting for the tyre to be fixed that, all of a sudden, I heard a loud explosion.

What followed?

Like I said before, I was confused. The thing was like, may be I should call it a dream or something that was unreal. I’m sure to have lost consciousness before I later saw broken glasses coming down on me. I was traumatized, especially as I suddenly discovered that one of my colleagues was lying in a pool of blood. The sight made me to call for help.

How did you find yourself in the hospital?

I actually managed to drive to the hospital, after driving through a group of people who kept banging on my car while making their way into the burning premises in apparent move to either help or grab what they could. I was admitted at the emergency and accident ward of Kings Care Hospital in Wuse Zone 4. Honestly, I give thanks to God who saw me through that incident.

‘The Blast Was Like A Movie’

ThisDay staff and victim of the Thursday Boko Haram blast, Mr. Sunny Adefuye, said the blast came to him like a film.

Sunny, who works in the machine section, said he came to work as usual and was devastated by the blast.

“I ran and hid myself but immediately told myself that if this building collapses, it will come down on me and kill me.

“Then I ran out. All this while, I never realised I had a wound. It was outside that I then saw I had a cut on my arm.”

Sunny was lucky. His three other colleagues whose names could not be ascertained by this reporter are still in the intensive care unit of an hospital and are not yet talking.

However, medical staff at the National Hospital, Abuja where they said they are responding to treatment.

Meanwhile, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has called on the Federal Government to provide security for media houses in the country.