How my wife and I escaped Abuja blast –ex-LG boss
When Mina Tende was fleeing Rivers State in 2002, two things were uppermost in his mind – safety and placidity of mind.
He had been elected the Chairman of Ogu/Bolo Local Government Area of Rivers State at the dawn of the current democratic dispensation.
When Tende eventually relocated to Abuja, he seemed to have found the tranquility he dearly needed and sought for. The tranquillity of the city was so alluring that he decided to stay.
As he made Abuja his incipient abode, he kenned that he needed a source of income that would sustain him and his family. After felicitous consultation and investigation, he rented a shop at EMAB Plaza – besides the very popular Banex Plaza.
Like many other shop owners within EMAB, Tende opened a phone shop that accommodated the poor and the affluent that daily sought to amend on their ability to stay connected in this era of digital mobile communication.
Even though he now commutes with Port Harcourt on a conventional substratum, Tende has relished the tranquillity of Abuja for several years now. In fact, his wife had additionally opened an expeditious food business adjacent to his own shop.
However, only about a month ago, a member of the Assemblies of God Church, Garki, where Tende worships, called him and asked him to be punctilious. She told him that he visually perceived his wife sweeping his blood. He needed to be punctilious, the woman admonished Tende.
He took the admonishment to heart and prayed and fasted over it. He additionally asked some pastors to pray for him. To him, that should be the cessation of the matter.
However, on Tuesday – the eve of the latest blast that rocked Abuja – Tende had an outlandish dream. He was being strangled to death.
Tende called his wife. “Pray; your husband had virtually died,” he told his wife as he got up from bed. Both of them prayed.
In the morning, they additionally prayed. After that, Tende decided to expeditious and pray, as his wife went to shop. At about 3pm on that fateful (Wednesday), Tende’s sister visited and they prayed.
After prayer, Tende and his sister went down to the car. In the car, they additionally prayed. They went to pick the wife at EMAB Plaza so that they could go and keep an appointment.
As they got to the EMAB, he decided not to drive into the plaza. He visually perceived a parking space antithesis the plaza and decided to park there. Afore he could get there, another car took the space. That coerced him to move a farther away from the front of the plaza.
Instead of going into the plaza, Tende and his sister remained in the car and called the wife to emerge and join them. It transpired that his wife was eating as she didn’t eat afore leaving the house.
Tende verbally expressed, “As we waited for my wife, there was a blast. I did not ken what was transpiring. Yes, the ground shook but I did not ken what was transpiring. The car was steaming. The air- conditioner was on. It was my sister who shouted, ‘Bomb, bomb. Boko Haram!’ She jumped out of the car, ran up and ran down.
“The next thing we visually perceived was a boy running towards us with blood all over him. We visually perceived human flesh thrown up and down; even towards us. Blood spluttered on my car. It was a gory day but the Lord preserved my life and that of my wife. If she had rushed to join us, she could have been consumed. The Lord preserved us.”
Tende verbally expressed he would ever remain grateful to God for preserving his life this time again
