Mrs. Chioma Christiana Dike, a housewife, lost three children and her husband to the Christmas day bomb blast at St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, Niger state. In an interview with Adelowo Oladipo, she gave an incisive  account of the incident and how she and her two  other children narrowly missed death by the whisker.

Can you tell us your name and how you received the news of the death of your husband and Children?
My name is Mrs. Christiana Chioma Dike. On that fateful Christmas morning when I heard the terrible sound of the bomb blast, I was at home and I felt as if the whole world was collapsing around me when the incident occurred.

My five children, consisting of three boys and two girls left for church with my late husband, Mr. Williams A. Dike around 6:00am, for the first mass. But at about few minutes after 8:00 am, I heard a loud sound and I looked towards my church, St. Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla.  I cried out that this thing had  happened in my church because our residence is near the African Petrol fuel station, which is a few distance from the church. And I started shouting to my neighbours that there was the likelihood that the sound that rented  the air some few minutes ago might have been a bomb blast, just as I started shouting the name of my husband, whose pet name is 'my Daddy' and at the same time I was crying over what might have become the fate of my five children. From that point, I ran to the church to check if the bomb blast had not affected my six family members.

When you got to the church premises, what was the first thing you noticed?
When I got to the church, I saw some human flesh on the road opposite the church, while others were in the pool of their own blood, fatally injured, just as some church members who knew me with those five children as their mother and wife to my husband came to lift me up from where I had fallen on the road as a result of the heaps of human flesh I saw and many more terrible things which I had never seen in my life prior to that day.

When I could not find my husband among the rescue team, nor my children to identify among the crowd that gathered around me, I began to cry hysterically, because with the loss of my husband, I know there will be nobody to take care of me and my children.  I am an orphan, with no brothers or sisters. Later I noticed that my husband and the children were inside the family vehicle that was burning.  But I did not know how God had managed to remove my first son miraculously  from the vehicle, carried him and threw him far away from the car and on the highway in front of the church. When the rescue team reached where the boy was laid on the ground, his thighs and his face were covered with blood. Later, some men of God took him for treatment at Daughters of Charity’s Hospital at Kubwa, Abuja, the  Federal Capital Territory. Secondly it is also still a mystery to me how the rescue team managed to pick my second daughter, Miss Favour Dike. Though she had some burns on her buttocks, she is now recuperating at the National Hospital Abuja with my first son, Martin William Dike.

Where is your husband now?
My husband is dead, with my two boys and my first daughter, Miss Lillian Dike, 10 years old and a primary five pupil. My second son, Master Richard Dike, was around six years old, in primary four, while my last child, Master Emmanuel Dike, was around four years old and until his death, was in nursery three.

Did you regret that they came to worship at the first service that day?
Not at all. but the only thing that pained me most about their death is that the first mass had been concluded and they were about to enter into the car and come home for their Christmas meal when the messengers of death who disguised as Boko Haram Islamic sect drove into the church arena in a car loaded with explosives . These they detonated  thereby causing the loss of lives of four of my immediate family members, who until that moment were hale,  hearty and in the mood to celebrate Christmas with me and the remaining members of my family.  They had already closed from church and it was not as if they went to some other places, other than the church. If you were there that day, you will be moved to tears as everywhere was scattered with human beings who were either dead, unconscious or in great pains, crying for help.

Did your husband show any unusual sign when he left home for church with the children that morning and why did you not follow them?
We did not discuss anything,  he just told me that they were going to church and all of us laughed together. In fact he did not even know he was going to die that day. Before they left for church, all of us were inside our rooms playing . When it was time for the children to go to church, I bathed for  the younger ones and help put on  their clothes.  I gave them money for offering, I also gave them their  bibles and they left for church.  not more than two hours after  that, I heard the sound of the bomb blast. The family car was burnt to ashes, together with my husband  and  children. Please help me beg the government to help me because I no longer have husband who will take care of me and my two children. I am even more confused now because   my two little children and I  have no one to rely upon except God, since our breadwinner and my three other innocent children had been killed for no crime whatsoever.

What type of job were you doing since you got married?
I was not doing anything. I am a housewife, while my late husband was a businessman, producing sachet table water. He used his car to market the pure water produced by him and we got married in 1999. I waited on the Lord until the following year after which we were blessed with five children.

What exactly do you want the government to do for you in form of compensation?
I am not in the position to dictate to the government on what to be done for us on humanitarian ground. My husband was the one who used to provide for the entire family members when he was alive.

But now that he is dead, where can I run to with two little children without a steady job. The government should please help me and my two little kids so that we do not die of hunger.