10-month-old baby reunites with ‘missing’ mother in hospital

A 10-month-old baby simply identified as
Goodness, who was rescued from the scene of the
Monday bomb blast in Nyanya near Abuja, has
been reunited with her mother in hospital.
Goodness was separated from her mother, Gloria
Adams, who was presumed dead in the explosion.
Before she was taken from the Asokoro Hospital to
the Wuse General Hospital where her mother is
receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit,
Goodness spent Tuesday morning sleeping.
Medical workers and her aunt, Maria Dominic,
looked after the little baby who had only a slight
swelling close to one of her eyes.
Her mother suffered severe injuries and is one of
the two left in the Wuse General Hospital’s ICU
after one other victim died.
Gloria, according to a hospital source said she
was carrying Goodness on her back when the
blast occurred.
The hospital source quoted her as saying, “I
cannot remember how I got here. I only saw
myself on the ground, turning and turning. Then
someone came and removed my baby from my
back.”
The source said Gloria was very happy to see her
baby alive.
“I’m feeling better. Many have died; but I am alive.
I give glory to God, for saving me and my little
baby,” she told the hospital workers.
While Gloria could afford to smile on sighting her
baby, Mrs. Hilda Shaka, an employee of the Bank of
Agriculture, fainted outside the hospital on learning
of the death of her ex-colleague, Jonathan John.
When efforts by her colleagues who were also in
the hospital to make her regain consciousness
failed, she was rushed to another hospital where
she was admitted.
A member of staff of BOA said, “Two of our
colleagues were involved in yesterday (Monday)
explosion and their cases were severe. Some of
us are here hoping that they will recover, but after
a series of medical attention on John, he still
couldn’t make it.
“When Mrs. Shaka heard of John’s death, she
fainted. We thought it was a joke, but after
spending so much time trying to revive her without
success, we decided to rush her to another
hospital. But we thank God that she is recovering.”
A relation of another victim, Mr. Hamza Umar, told
one of our correspondents at the same Wuse
hospital that his brother, Isa Nuhu, was among
those burnt to death at the scene of the blast.
Umar said that it was too painful that after one of
his younger  brothers watched Nuhu burn to death,
they had yet to find out the mortuary where his
body was deposited.
He added, “We had been to the National Hospital
before but we are going back there now. We don’t
know what to do. My brother sells recharge cards
and repairs handsets.
“One of our brothers saw him on the ground with
his legs already burnt. There was also fire on his
body but security agents did not allow the guy to
go and stop the fire and so he died.”
A community leader in Karu Local Government
Area of Nasarawa State, Chief Waziri Yemide, said
two of his children, Audu and Babangida, were
seriously injured in the explosion.
He said, “I feel unhappy over the blast but I thank
God because none of them is dead. The only one
that is in the hospital has wounds on his legs.”
A survivor, Oguike Charles, told one of our
correspondents at the Asokoro General Hospital,
that he had been lucky to escape death in Abuja.
“This is the second time I have found myself
lucky. I narrowly escaped the Nigerian Immigration
Service recruitment tragedy in Abuja last month,”
Charles added.