A man, who lost his wife to the massacre at St. Philip’s Catholic Church, Ozubulu, Anambra State has narrated how his one-year-old boy survived a gunshot, according to a report by NewTelegraph.
The man identified as Mr. Peter Nwike while speaking at the Children’s Ward of the Nnamdi Azikiwe University Teaching Hospital (NAUTH), Nnewi revealed that the boy, Master Chimelum Nwike, was shot on his mother’s back and the bullet came out through his abdomen. Nwike, however, said the baby’s mother died on the Sunday night after operation.
He said: “On Sunday morning, my wife and my son left for church about 6a.m. After a while, we started hearing gunshots and subsequently shouts and weeping. I rushed to the church. On getting there, I met my son lying in a pool of blood on the floor alone.
“I did not know they have taken my wife to the hospital. I picked my son and we were rushed to this hospital but my wife died after operation that night. “I am from Ezza in Ebonyi State but I live at Umuezekwe Ofufe Amaka in Uzoakwa, Ozubulu where the incident took place. They shot my wife several times. A bullet hit my son in the back went out through his abdomen. The boy is responding to treatment but my wife is now in the mortuary.”
While speaking at a press release, the NAUTH Chief Medical Director (CMD), Dr Anthony Igwegbe yesterday, told journalists that 22 persons were brought to the hospital about 7.30a.m. that bloody Sunday. Igwegbe said two out of them had been discharged, while five of them had been relocated to the University Orthopedic Centre at Oba in Idemili South Local Government Area, while the rest were responding to treatment.
He said: “We thank God that we were able to mobilise our nurses and doctors that Sunday and they were able to sustain them. However, we lost one woman that night because she sustained several shots in the heart and abdomen and after her operations she could not survive it.”
Miss Chisom Nwanya, daughter of one of the victims, said her mother was getting better. “She can now talk and sit down. The doctors and nurses here are doing their best. We are yet to recover from the shock but I thank God my mother is alive.”
Meanwhile, palpable tension has enveloped Ozubulu 48 hours after the bloodletting which held the community spell bound.
A visit to the community according to NewTelegraph revealed that the entire community looked deserted with fear and apprehension took over the environment. Most houses visited were deserted while the only compound where there were about seven people, they refrained from speaking about Alloysius Ikegwuonu aka Bishop or even talking about what happened as another woman feigned ignorance of who Bishop was. Apart from the market that had a few people display their wares, people were barely on the road.
St. Philip’s Catholic Church, where the gunmen killed about 15 people on the spot, among them Bishop’s father, up to Bishop’s palatial home, was taken over by policemen and soldiers. At Bishop’s house, two security personnel were guarding the gate, wielding pump action guns. One of the security officers, who spoke with New Telegraph, said that instruction given to them was that nobody should be allowed into the compound until Bishop arrives.
He said: “We are not supposed to even entertain any question from anybody. We are here to guard the house and we were given instruction not to allow anybody inside the compound until when Bishop is around. There is nobody in the house except the gateman.”
An elderly woman, Mrs. Phelomina Okaru, who spoke with our correspondent at the market, condemned the killing of innocent people who gathered in the church to worship God.
“It is a sacrilege,” she said.
source:GQ234.com
No comments:
Post a Comment