Immigration tragedy: I found my wife in the mortuary

If they had known,
maybe they would have
asked government to
forget its job so they
could live together. This is part of the
lamentation of Mr Austin Amu, the
widower of Mrs Sandra Amun, who lost
her life, Saturday, March 15, 2014, at the
Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium Benin City,
where the recruitment exercise of the
Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS) took
place.
Incidentally, Amun, from Uzebba, Owan
West Local Government Council of Edo
State, participated in the recruitment
exercise with the deceased but survived
the stampede. It was a pitiable sight when
Sunday Vanguard visited the family’s
residence in Benin City watching the
husband of the deceased trying to
administer medication on their last born,
Favour, who was crying due to cough and
catarrh.
Amun recalled that he and Sandra had
woken up on the ill-fated day and had
their bath together as they had always
done in the past 10 years. They planned
to get to the recruitment venue on time.
They actually did but met an
uncontrollable crowd at the stadium as
thousands of applicants struggled to
participate in the job test.
*Bereaved husband and kids… Govt
insensitive
Sunday Vanguard found that the
stampede occurred because the
organizers decided to lock the big gates
and used the small ones at the stadium.
As a result, people had to pay N1000
each to gain entry.. Those who could not
afford the money made frantic efforts to
find their way into the stadium at all
costs, a situation that created chaos.
Amun narrated his story to Sunday
Vanguard: “ I applied for the job as a
senior secondary school holder while my
wife applied as a graduate because she
finished from Auchi Polytechnic. On that
day, while we were on queue, I could
have been the victim because while I
was in the crowd, I almost couldn’t
breath. I told her we should go home.
But she said I shouldn’t worry, that I
should find somewhere to relax while
she will be at the stadium and monitor
things and then get back to me. About 20
minutes later, her younger brother who
also came to write the examination saw
me and asked after his sister. I told him
she was in the crowd. 30 minutes later,
somebody shouted that a woman had
died.
I didn’t know it was my wife. It was then
they now went to open the big gates into
the stadium. The first time, they were
using the small gates; it was after the
incident that they went to open the big
gates, for people to enter the stadium.. I
thought I was going to see her inside the
stadium. I went round the place, I didn’t
see her. Around 4 pm when we were
about to write the test, I still had not seen
her and I became more worried but the
brother encouraged me to write the test
saying maybe she was writing her own
somewhere. After the test, I sat by the
gates thinking while coming out I would
see her. I waited till around 6.30 to 7 pm.
Later, thought maybe she would be in
my viewing centre. I went there but
didn’t see her, people came around to
watch football, but because I had not seen
my wife, I couldn’t open the shop. I
locked the place and called her younger
brother and my friend who has a vehicle.
We went to the hospital where they
rushed those injured during the test, to
check if she was there; but they said they
had discharged four people who
sustained injuries.
They checked their names, my wife’s
name was not there. They now said there
was one woman who Immigration
officials brought without a name and they
used no name to book the woman’s
corpse. I now requested to see the
woman. Behold I saw my wife in the
mortuary sleeping alone. I touched her,
she could not touch me, I called her, she
could not answer.
I tried to call her phone because I did not
believe she was dead; but she did not
pick. But somebody picked her phone on
the ground and the person told me he
couldn’t reach the owner until after the
test, because of the crowd. It was the next
day that the Civil Defence people that
collected it brought it home.
“Since the incident nobody has called me
from the Immigration Service. The only
people that came to see me were from a
human rights group based in Abuja. They
asked how I felt and what happened. I
told them the story. I don’t know where
to start from. We had been together even
before she went to Auchi Polytechnic, she
went to the polytechnic from my house;
she finished her studies before we
started having kids.
She graduated in HND banking and
finance seven years ago. The most senior
child, a girl, Favour, is six years, Miracle,
the second, is five and the last, Favour
(male), is three years. I want assistance
from government, let them give the
children scholarship, give me and my
brother-in-law jobs. My wife’s mother
and grandmother are still alive; she is the
first daughter of her family and I am the
first son of my family too. This load is too
much for me and I don’t know where to
start.” (31)