Although business activities have since picked up with people trooping in and out of the plaza, some of the bomb blast victims and shop owners in the plaza lamented that the government to, as it promised, come to their aid not help their situations. For those that lost their lives, on Sunday we found out that the owner of the plaza paid condolence visits to the families of victims and made cash donations to them. Survivors of the incident, who were part of the commemorators of the first year anniversary of their departed colleagues, also decried the failure of the government to assist the relatives of victims who lost their lives. A victim, who did not want his name in print, said: “We still haven’t heard anything from them. Some of the promises they made include giving some of the victim’s money and foot their medical bills, but nothing has been done. Most of us had to source for money to pay medical bills.” The management of the plaza said they were asked to give a comprehensive list of the victims so that they could assist the families, adding: “We did that and till date they are silent about it. They were neglected and left to their fate.” Though the plaza was left in ruins after the blast, the management of the plaza has since renovated it and put in place security measures to forestall such occurrences in future. Recalling the memories of the blast one year after, a survivor said: “It would have been worse if the bomber had found his way into the plaza. So, today (June 25th), we are just giving thanks to God, we are grateful to God.” Mrs. Ndidi Ogbonna, a banana seller who used to hawk around the plaza lost her friend to the bomb blast. She said: “I saw her last two days before the blast. I also lost two other people. We are not safe here anymore, but we don’t have anywhere to go because we have many customers here.” Mary Mathew, 29, who until the bomb blast was the breadwinner of her family of nine, lost one of her legs in the blast. Her brothers who were at the event thanked God that she is still alive. “We are glad that she is still alive, she is everything to us and we would have been nothing if she had died in that blast,” a relative enthused. Mary added: “I give thanks to God that I am alive today to give a testimony, even though I lost one leg. The government promised to come to our aid but left us to our fate. But God didn’t forsake us and we are alive to tell our story. We are just petty traders, looking for our daily bread, it wasn’t nice of the then government to have left us to our fate. But today we are alive and can only give thanks to God.” Bat Odinaka, who deals in phones, accessories and laptops said: “We lost a very kind friend named Onyinye who sells recharge cards and phone accessories. She was friendly to virtually everybody in this plaza. Her body, till date, was not identified among the bodies recovered and the parents are still unable to overcome the shock of not only losing their child, but unable to identify the body to bury in a Christian way.” Another survivor of the blast, Mike Olugbenga, had this to say as he shared his story with Daily Trust Sunday: “On that fateful day, I had just returned from Wuse Zone 1 and trying to get a parking space inside the plaza. I decided to park my car outside the premises. But on my way to the shops upstairs, I remembered that I forgot do something in my car. While on my way to the car, the bomb exploded, the car beside mine was already burning. I had some money in the car that I needed to also take to do a business. I tried to open the car but it wouldn’t open. I got stuck there until two people took me away from the car. I want to believe that they were God sent because my car, immediately I left, caught fire and exploded. How I survived it, till date I don’t know because people in front of me and even behind me all lost their lives from that bomb blast.” Mr. Nnaedu Thank God Umeohia, who spoke on behalf of the plaza’s management, said that businesses have picked. A month after the blast, the plaza remained shut and the military provided some expert advises, he said, adding: “We got some CCTV cameras, bomb detectors and installed them in some areas in the plaza.”
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