At Tudun Mazat village in Rokk district of Barkin Ladi Local Government Area, Plateau State, the air is very dense and saturated with the tears of bereaved families who lost 14 children in the auto-crash that happened on the morning of Saturday, August 3, 2013.
The dead children were part of a group of 30 pre-teens and teenagers, all members of the combined Boys’ and Girls’ Brigade teams of the three churches in the village – Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN), Baptist Church and the Assemblies of God – who had undertaken their regular Saturday morning trek as a form of exercise, with no premonition of what lay ahead of them.
On the fateful day, the children had woken in their respective homes and began to assemble, moving from street-to-street, singing their normal songs as they beckoned to their mates to join them for the morning walk.
About then, several of the families were rounding off their morning devotion. Not more than 30 minutes later, the news came back to the village that several of the children who had joined the Saturday trek had been crushed to death by a vehicle. A good number of them had also sustained injuries. Within seconds, there was massive wailing in different parts of the village, as parents learnt that their children were dead.
Recalling that sad morning, Mrs. Hajara Samuel Mabas, a widow, whose 19-year-old daughter, Rahab, died said: “I usually observe my early morning devotion in the church. But that morning I was feeling heavy; I could not lift my body. My late daughter, Rahab, 19 years old, was still sleeping when I heard other members of the Boys and Girls Brigade matching towards our house and singing their usual songs to wake other members. I woke her up from sleep. She was reluctant to get up. So, I asked if she would prefer to rest for that day, but she said no, that she would join the others. I said, ‘may God go with you.’ She left and joined them on the street. I sat down to read my Bible. I was at the same spot when I heard the shout from the direction they went that a vehicle had ran over them. Thirteen of them died instantly while one later died in the hospital.”
Another bereaved parent, Mr. Abednego Yakubu, lost three daughters in the incident, while Mr. David Ezekiel lost a daughter.
The Boys and Girls Brigades had long existed in the village, though they became extinct some years ago after several of the early members grew up and left the village. But few months ago, children from the three churches in the village came together to revive the associations once again. So every Saturday, as early as 5:30am, the children would get up and go for the morning walk; singing praise songs as they moved along the roadside. They usually ended up at the church, where they prayed and did other activities before departing for the day.
So when the three daughters of Mr. Abednego heard other members singing along the street, they got up to joined them. He had thought that in less than an hour or two, his daughters would be back in the house. Little did he know that he was seeing them alive for the last time! On hearing that an accident had occurred, he ran to the scene, which is a little bit far from the village. Before he got there, the remains of his daughters, namely, Kenpiya 16, Faith, 13 and Princess, 10, had been gathered with the others and taken to the hospital. It was the same story for a number of other families.
But how did such accident that claimed 14 children at a blow happen so early in the morning? Many could not explain. Not even the children. According to Milka Isaac, 15, they were marching in the same direction with the Peugeot 505 station wagon transporting bags of maize and so could not see it coming. As it was approaching the group, one of the team leaders was waving the torchlight he was holding and signalling to the driver to stop, but rather than stop or swerve from the children, the driver ran directly into them, crushing them .
The children were walking in two rows. Most of those jogging close to the road died instantly. As the surviving children recounted, the incident could have been more disastrous but for their leaders who took action instantly, shoving many of the children off the vehicle’s way. They could not save those that were too close to the vehicle. The children were more than 30 in number and had even reached the spot where they were supposed to stop and turn back to the village when the incident occurred. The scene of the accident was littered with slippers and shoes of the victims. Bloodstains also besmeared the tarred road.
Some of the children survived miraculously. Apart from those who were thrown off the path of the vehicle, some including Paul Maren, 11, had a thin thread between them and death. Paul said “I saw that we were not moving as fast as we were doing at the beginning. I stopped to re-tie my shoelace. I was doing so when I saw the vehicle clearing off my mates who were in front of me. Other surviving children like Chinplang Toma, Clement Isuwa, Nandam Christopher, and Emmanuel Joshua could not just explain how they survived. It all happened too fast for them to comprehend what happened. The next thing they knew was that they were on the ground.
‘We saw blood. We found our feet and started running towards home.
Some of them reached home with blood gushing from their heads without feeling the pains initially. They were later taken to the hospital where they were treated and discharged.
While the Abednego family lost all their three kids that went out that fateful day, the Makabat family lost one of their daughters while the other, Shifra returned home, while 11-year-old Rita, a primary six pupil, died. Mr. Christopher Jalo, a policeman who had come home to receive treatment also lost his eight-year-old daughter, Nanret while 11-year-old Emmanuel survived.
As at the time Sunday Sun visited his house, he was away to receive treatment. But as if the calamity that befell his household was not enough, some armed robbers had visited his home two days after the incident. Even though no one could give reasons for the robber’s mission, it was speculated that they might have thought that the governor visited the homes of the victims a day after the incident and probably donated money to the families. One of the victims, Jetro David had come from another village the Monday before the incident to spend holidays with his cousin, Peace John only for them to die together in the accident.
The family of Mr Alfred also lost ThankGod while his elder brother, 14-year-old Dasum Alfred, a student survived. At the time of visiting the village, some of the children were still on admission in various hospitals. At the intensive care unit of Plateau Specialist Hospital, the daughter of a pastor in the village was still in a coma. Zafaniya Danladi, another survivor had fractures on his two legs.
But how is the village reacting to the accident and coping with the magnitude of people that have been visiting the village since the incident? Madam Hajara Mabas, who had six children and mother of the eldest victim, had lost her husband four years ago said she had accepted the will of God.
Taking a philosophical attitude to the unfortunate incident, she chose to lean on the comforting words of God: “The bible says that to die in Christ is great gain. That is the way we love to die. The children were singing and praising God when they died. Now they are with Jesus Christ”, she said.
While expressing gratitude to people who have been trooping in to condole with the family, Mabas said the family would welcome whatever government chooses to do for them.
For Mr. Abednego, it was a case of double tragedy. He lost three children – two of whom were already students in secondary schools before their demise. Looking very forlorn, he told the reporter after a long pause of silence: “I am sick and helpless. What do you expect me to say? It is on God I rely. See, I have hepatitis because we do not have good water in this village. Many of us in this village have this disease. We drink contaminated water. The ground cannot easily be broken to make well. When it rains, the water remains on the surface because the ground cannot absorb it. So you can see what we go through. Government should not allow our children to die in vain. If it is water they can provide for us in their memory, then let them do so. I am also unemployed. I pray that government can come to my aid and educate my two remaining children.”
Another father, David Ezekiel described the accident as a strange one in the village. He appealed to government to do something about manning the roads because of reckless drivers. “The government must not let our children die in vain. Let this be an eye opener that men need to be put on the highway to check reckless drivers and prevent future occurrence of this incident.
Speaking in the same vein, wife of the village head, Mrs. Paulina Bulus said that people were still trying to absorb the shock of the incident. She noted that prior to the incident, the community had never received any attention, but had suddenly gained national attention because of what happened. She said: “We have no water, no electricity. There is only one well that the entire village depends on and it dries up too quickly because of the condition of the soil. We pray that the government will do something for us.”
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