"Immigration tragedy: How we escaped death –Survivors
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As families of those who lost their lives in the tragedy that hit the Nigerian Immigration Services (NIS) recruitment in Abuja continue to mourn their dead, survivors have told their stories of figuratively walking in the valley of the shadow of death.
Scores of people died at the test centres nationwide on Saturday following a stampede during the aptitude test organised by the Nigerian Immigration Services. Among the dead were men, women, pregnant women and others.
Speaking of their close shave with death, Frank Temitope, graduate of Building Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Bida; Susan Nwankwo, graduate of Industrial Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Oluchi Nwachukwu, graduate of Business Administration, Federal Polytechnic, Ede; Miss Oluwatosi Amoda and Mrs. Mary Ogida stated that it was a miracle that they came out alive.
Frank Temitope, who gave a vivid account of how the stampede started, said he died emotionally.
He said: “Physically, I survived, but I died emotionally. Whenever anything about Nigeria comes up again, I will never show up. Nigeria has failed the youths of this country.
I even saved a guy’s life yesterday. I was in front and people were pushing from the back. There was a culvert in front and the guy ahead of me while trying to jump, got hooked up.
“People were pushing and they were going to step on him. I was able to rescue the guy, but he might not use his legs anytime soon. Even my kneels still hurt from the injuries I sustained.”
Temitope said despite the death of seven applicants and over 40 that were rushed to the hospital, Immigration officers went ahead with the conduct of the test at about 4pm.
He stated: “We were told to come to the venue by 7am. We even got there before the time. They did not open the gate. It was one of the applicants that jumped over and opened the gate. The guy opened the gate because people were choking.
“He sustained serious injuries too while trying to open the gate. The Immigration officers were just there, looking. The stampede took place around 9am. It was like a sea of human beings. Even the test did not start untill 4pm. With people rushed to the hospital and many dead, the test still took place.”
In her account, Susan Nwankwo said she was saved by God’s grace. She said: “It is by the special grace of God that I am alive today. It was not by my own strength. If men who are strong could fall down and die and some collapse, how much more myself who is a woman? At a point, I was screaming.
“My friend who was in front of me could not help me. She was struggling too to save her own life. At some point, I did bite a guy in front of me. I was at the point of death. I just needed space to breathe. Although I did not know them, I saw dead bodies. I was scared. I saw some bodies inside the ambulance. I do not know if they were dead or not. I will never attend such an aptitude test again in my life.”
Oluchi Nwachukwu gave a similar account. She said what happened on Saturday could have been avoided.
According to her, “what happened on Saturday was an eyesore. It was an experience one wishes never to see again. Beside you, people were falling down and collapsing. They were shouting for help and there was no one to help them.
“You could not even help yourself let alone helping others. At some point, breathing became a problem for me. I had to raise my head so I could breathe. Even with my body size, I was floating in the air. My legs could not touch the ground. I was being tossed. It was a horrible situation.
“People’s original school certificates were being tossed around, like rags. Shoes, clothes and wristwatches were everywhere. The bad thing is that there was no help coming from anywhere. The Immigration officers were standing there and helpless, too. The crowd was just something else.”
Speaking from her hospital bed, a 2006 graduate of Mass Communication, Mrs. Mary Ogida, stated that the trauma was so much that she would prefer to hawk sachet water instead of participating in such recruitment again. She said she was taken into the mortuary with dead victims.
Her words: “I’m lucky to survive the stampede. I was rushed to the hospital in an unconscious state. They brought me to the hospital along the dead ones before they later discovered that I was not dead.
“The population at the gate was too much and when we were about to enter the stadium, instead of them to open the whole gates, they just opened one of them, to the extent that many of them climbed the fence, in an attempt to gain entry. You know the desperation to get the job.
“My case was pathetic because I was at the centre. People pushed me from every side, to the extent that I can’t breathe or retreat and before I knew it, I fell down. I was lucky that one boy built a wall around me to reduce the number of people trampling on me. I kept shouting: ‘I’m dead, help me.’
It was almost the same pathetic story for Miss Oluwatosi Amoda, who told Daily Sun that she thought she was dead after sustaining multiple fractures during the stampede.
“When I got there before 7.00am, I met a large crowd, but I have to push my way through. When I got to the front, I noticed that they have not opened any of the gates. We pleaded with them to open the gates so that we could go in and sit down inside, but they refused. When the crowd surged, some started climbing the fence and that was how the push started.
“We were held up in the situation until we were choked and suffocating. I thought I was dead until I woke up in the hospital. I tried to walk, but I could not. If I had known, I would not have even attempted going close to the stadium in the first place. I just finished my national youth service last year.”
Bilikisu, a sister to one of the dead victims, Mrs. Oyiza Yusuf, expressed grief that her sister died while trying to save her pregnant friend, disclosing that the death of her sister’s first husband in an auto crash was responsible for her looking for job after graduation in 2006.
She said: “I didn’t really have any premonition apart from the dream I had while taking a nap that morning, after calling her number without success. In the dream, I saw myself in a party where people were making merry. I saw people carrying well-dressed dead body, at the venue of the occasion.
“In the dream, I did not only refuse to eat but also left the party because I saw something very strange. I woke up immediately and started praying only for my phone to ring to inform me about my sister’s death.
“She was married for eight years without any child. The husband was a banker in Maiduguri until he had an auto crash while going back after his annual leave. My sister then joined us in Kano, but the Kano riot forced us to relocate to Abuja. In Abuja, she met and got married to another man and had a child for him about a year and eight months ago, only for her to die trying to save her pregnant friend. It was too heavy a burden for one person"
Scores of people died at the test centres nationwide on Saturday following a stampede during the aptitude test organised by the Nigerian Immigration Services. Among the dead were men, women, pregnant women and others.
Speaking of their close shave with death, Frank Temitope, graduate of Building Technology, Federal Polytechnic, Bida; Susan Nwankwo, graduate of Industrial Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; Oluchi Nwachukwu, graduate of Business Administration, Federal Polytechnic, Ede; Miss Oluwatosi Amoda and Mrs. Mary Ogida stated that it was a miracle that they came out alive.
Frank Temitope, who gave a vivid account of how the stampede started, said he died emotionally.
He said: “Physically, I survived, but I died emotionally. Whenever anything about Nigeria comes up again, I will never show up. Nigeria has failed the youths of this country.
I even saved a guy’s life yesterday. I was in front and people were pushing from the back. There was a culvert in front and the guy ahead of me while trying to jump, got hooked up.
“People were pushing and they were going to step on him. I was able to rescue the guy, but he might not use his legs anytime soon. Even my kneels still hurt from the injuries I sustained.”
Temitope said despite the death of seven applicants and over 40 that were rushed to the hospital, Immigration officers went ahead with the conduct of the test at about 4pm.
He stated: “We were told to come to the venue by 7am. We even got there before the time. They did not open the gate. It was one of the applicants that jumped over and opened the gate. The guy opened the gate because people were choking.
“He sustained serious injuries too while trying to open the gate. The Immigration officers were just there, looking. The stampede took place around 9am. It was like a sea of human beings. Even the test did not start untill 4pm. With people rushed to the hospital and many dead, the test still took place.”
In her account, Susan Nwankwo said she was saved by God’s grace. She said: “It is by the special grace of God that I am alive today. It was not by my own strength. If men who are strong could fall down and die and some collapse, how much more myself who is a woman? At a point, I was screaming.
“My friend who was in front of me could not help me. She was struggling too to save her own life. At some point, I did bite a guy in front of me. I was at the point of death. I just needed space to breathe. Although I did not know them, I saw dead bodies. I was scared. I saw some bodies inside the ambulance. I do not know if they were dead or not. I will never attend such an aptitude test again in my life.”
Oluchi Nwachukwu gave a similar account. She said what happened on Saturday could have been avoided.
According to her, “what happened on Saturday was an eyesore. It was an experience one wishes never to see again. Beside you, people were falling down and collapsing. They were shouting for help and there was no one to help them.
“You could not even help yourself let alone helping others. At some point, breathing became a problem for me. I had to raise my head so I could breathe. Even with my body size, I was floating in the air. My legs could not touch the ground. I was being tossed. It was a horrible situation.
“People’s original school certificates were being tossed around, like rags. Shoes, clothes and wristwatches were everywhere. The bad thing is that there was no help coming from anywhere. The Immigration officers were standing there and helpless, too. The crowd was just something else.”
Speaking from her hospital bed, a 2006 graduate of Mass Communication, Mrs. Mary Ogida, stated that the trauma was so much that she would prefer to hawk sachet water instead of participating in such recruitment again. She said she was taken into the mortuary with dead victims.
Her words: “I’m lucky to survive the stampede. I was rushed to the hospital in an unconscious state. They brought me to the hospital along the dead ones before they later discovered that I was not dead.
“The population at the gate was too much and when we were about to enter the stadium, instead of them to open the whole gates, they just opened one of them, to the extent that many of them climbed the fence, in an attempt to gain entry. You know the desperation to get the job.
“My case was pathetic because I was at the centre. People pushed me from every side, to the extent that I can’t breathe or retreat and before I knew it, I fell down. I was lucky that one boy built a wall around me to reduce the number of people trampling on me. I kept shouting: ‘I’m dead, help me.’
It was almost the same pathetic story for Miss Oluwatosi Amoda, who told Daily Sun that she thought she was dead after sustaining multiple fractures during the stampede.
“When I got there before 7.00am, I met a large crowd, but I have to push my way through. When I got to the front, I noticed that they have not opened any of the gates. We pleaded with them to open the gates so that we could go in and sit down inside, but they refused. When the crowd surged, some started climbing the fence and that was how the push started.
“We were held up in the situation until we were choked and suffocating. I thought I was dead until I woke up in the hospital. I tried to walk, but I could not. If I had known, I would not have even attempted going close to the stadium in the first place. I just finished my national youth service last year.”
Bilikisu, a sister to one of the dead victims, Mrs. Oyiza Yusuf, expressed grief that her sister died while trying to save her pregnant friend, disclosing that the death of her sister’s first husband in an auto crash was responsible for her looking for job after graduation in 2006.
She said: “I didn’t really have any premonition apart from the dream I had while taking a nap that morning, after calling her number without success. In the dream, I saw myself in a party where people were making merry. I saw people carrying well-dressed dead body, at the venue of the occasion.
“In the dream, I did not only refuse to eat but also left the party because I saw something very strange. I woke up immediately and started praying only for my phone to ring to inform me about my sister’s death.
“She was married for eight years without any child. The husband was a banker in Maiduguri until he had an auto crash while going back after his annual leave. My sister then joined us in Kano, but the Kano riot forced us to relocate to Abuja. In Abuja, she met and got married to another man and had a child for him about a year and eight months ago, only for her to die trying to save her pregnant friend. It was too heavy a burden for one person"
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