The sanctity of the Church of Christ in Nigeria, COCIN, Jos, was last Sunday desecrated by suicide bombers who rammed into the premises with an explosive-laden vehicle, killing eight worshippers and wounding 40 others. Some of those who witnessed the unprovoked attack share their ugly experience with Abimaje Achor.
Nde Joshua Lar Wambutda, a poultry worker was one of the ones who lost a relation in the church blast. His daughter Grace Nenbam J Wambutda, who was a Sunday school teacher in COCIN, was among the eight persons who were killed last Sunday.
But her untimely death merely reminded her parents of the extraordinary circumstances of her birth and struggle in life. According to her father, Grace was born as a premature baby and nobody thought she would even survive.
“Grace was born when she was about six months in the womb and we had to put her in an ordinary incubator at the Vom Christian Hospital for three months.
We were very happy with the fact that she grew up and lived normal life like any other human being. But since it has pleased the same God who gave her to us, to take her away, we have nothing to regret because God knows everything,” the father said.
What would look like regret for the family is that they would no longer see their daughter to savour her simplicity and respect to people and the fact that her dream of starting her Higher National Program this year had been cut short by her untimely death.
Nenbam, which means God saves from death, said they could only shed tears of joy for their daughter because she could not have lived longer than the Lord wanted her to live on planet earth. They do not see her death as one caused by the bomb but something that God had destined to happen when it did.
The first child of the family, Nembam was described as a peacemaker, who loved and respected all members of the family while alive.
The skirmishes in Jos have become commonplace. The killings and destruction that has been going on in the state have become so recurrent that not many even give any further attention whenever a new attack is reported.
The state has become a theatre of killing and destruction in recent years, showing no signs of abatement, despite many attempts at rapprochement by the state and federal governments.
In spite of that, no one had expected the kind of inhuman assault on the temple of the Lord that daredevils unleashed on the Church of Christ in Nigeria, COCIN last Sunday. It was a mayhem that anyone least expected at the time it did.
The worshippers of the expansive church had gathered to do what they always did on Sundays: fix their gaze on the Lord, praise and worship the Almighty as well as seek His blessings for the days ahead.
But on that fateful Sunday, the prayer session for the first stream was about to commence when bedlam broke out. Bombs, blood and tears were flying everywhere in and around the church, with confusion reigning supreme.? Men, women and children, who had gathered for the first service, were forced to run in different directions, when the suicide bombers detonated their instrument of death.
The men, clad in military uniform, shot their way into the large Church premises before releasing the bombs that tore the church into pieces and sent some worshippers into the grave.
Ishaya Song, a 29- year- old student, who was on his way to the church, first had a dose of what the attackers were planning for the day. Two men on a motorcycle brandished a sharp machete on sighting him and left several lacerations on his neck and body before speeding off. He passed out and was revived in the hospital. He missed the first service but carried several scars on his body.
But 23- year- old Henry Miri was almost killed by the blast because he entered the church premises as the bombs went off. He said he was about to be screened by the security men when the bomb-laden vehicle forced its way into the main entrance of the church before the bombs exploded.
“ I saw a military man who disembarked from the bomb-laden vehicle and opened the gate for the suicide bomber to enter the church premises and before I could fathom what was going on, the bomb had exploded. I was thrown out of the church fence and my entire got face burnt in the process,” he recalled. Like Song, he regained consciousness at the Jos Specialist Hospital the following day.
“Even though I am alive to tell my story, my face has been disfigured by the fire and I cannot be the same again,” he lamented, pleading with the federal and Plateau state governments to come to his aid.
But Chief Andrew Daman, whose four relatives sustained injuries in the suicide bomb attack, is full of praises to God for sparing the lives of his family.
He described the blast as a tragic terrorism on Christians, accusing security men of taking sides in the attacks, which have polarized Christians and Muslims in Nigeria.
Nde Joshua Lar Wambutda, who is also a member of the evangelical group of the church, said that what was happening in the country today had already been predicted by the Bible and that Christians should not be worried by the trend of events.
He said that only God could provide Nigerians with the kind of security the nation needed. He however called on the government to do the basic things that the citizens expect from it so as to give everyone a fair sense of security and safety.
But even as the attack on COCIN has come and gone, the ripples, scars and pains will be difficult to forget in a hurry. As in previous attacks, the government remains clueless as to who did it and why they decided to confront God on a holy day like Sunday.