‘Please, don’t let me die’ - Blast victim seeks overseas treatment

The well-lit room was bright,but around the youth all was dark. A huge blood-soaked bandage was woven round his head, covering his battered eye.

“Please, don’t let me die,” he kept on crying.

Ahmadu Bala’s right eye was blown off in Wednesday’s bombing in Kaduna. No fewer than 82 people died in the incident. Officials said 39 died.

“Please, fly me abroad; I don’t want to die,” Bala ,18, cried on his bed at the Yusuf Dantsoho Memorial Hospital in the city.

Bala recalled how he was caught up in the blast after leaving the venue of the Ramadan lecture by Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi.

He said: “I was on my way back from ‘Tafsir’ (Ramadan lecture) at Murtala Square when I heard a loud sound and before I knew what was happening, I found myself on the floor, far away from where I remember standing.

“I felt my head was very heavy. My right eye had been blown off by the bomb and I lost consciousness. I was rushed to Yusuf Dantsoho Hospital here by a good Samaritan, I was told after I regained consciousness.”

Bala came from Labar, near Jaji, Kaduna State, to attend Sheikh Bauchi’s lecture.

He added: “I am pleading with the Kaduna State government to look into my plight and save my life and the lives of others affected by the bomb.”

It was gathered from a source that of the five victims brought to that hospital, Bala’s case is the most serious.

“His right eye is blown off. When they brought him, we quickly took him to the operating room, took care of the wound and he is now stable and partially responding to treatment.”

He said Bala needed to be flown abroad for treatment.

“We suggest that the government should as a matter of urgency, fly the young man abroad for proper treatment because his eye as well as part of his skull was affected by the blast and if it is not treated promptly, the wound can get infected and it may have a serious effect on the victim,” he said.

Five victims of the Alkali Road bombing were brought to the hospital, but four of them who had minor injuries were treated and discharged.