One of the parishioners at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla, near Suleja, Niger State, Mr. Patrick Okpalla, has described the Christmas Day bombing in the church as unprecedented, saying he only escaped death through divine intervention.
Speaking exclusively to LEADERSHIP yesterday, Okpala narrated the circumstances leading to the blast and how two of his friends died during the blast.
Okpala, who owns a school, Hope Rising International? Nursery and Primary School, Madalla said that he always attended St Jude Catholic Church at Zuba? but? decided to attend St Theresa Catholic Church Madalla on the fateful day.
He added that he instructed his children not to attend the Christmas eve mass on the grounds that he had a premonition that something bad might happen. In the morning of that faithful day, he went to church with his two children.
He said: “When the mass ended, we were told to go and see the manger and receive a blessed powder from the priest in celebration of the birth of Jesus.”
Okpala said he had greeted two of his friends outside, one of them Williams Dike who sells oil in Madalla Market and had? just stepped out, heading for home when the blast occurred.
“The explosion? occurred around eight in the morning? as people were coming out of the church after the mass,” said Okpala.
“I believe that the perpetrators wanted to enter the church. When they saw the security people, they threw the bomb. We just finished mass. I decided to greet some of my friends who were in the church. Immediately I stepped foot outside the church, I heard a loud noise. The force of the explosion was pulling me. I didn’t know what to do. Particles of what I suspected to be cements from the house were raining down on me. People were dead all around me,” he added.
Okpala said that one of the friends he had stopped over to greet, Williams Dike perished with his family in the car adding that it was only God that had saved him from the explosion.
“When I somewhat recovered from the shock, I decided to go and see if there were people to rescue, that was when I heard another loud noise. I had to leave everything and left for home. One of the men I greeted after the mass died in his car with his family while the other one was wounded but his car was badly damaged. What I saw was worse than what I witnessed during? the civil war.”
“I thought about my children. I didn’t know where to go and find them but told myself that if anything had happened to them, I can’t do anything. I later saw them, one of them without her sandals. I asked them to run home because I knew that my wife who was at home will be worried.”
Okpala said he had wanted to go back to see if he could rescue any one when he heard another loud noise.
“I turned back and went home. It is very painful. I am grateful to God for saving my life. I ask God to receive the soul of those that had died and put them in paradise. ‘’