slurryeye:
I remember this day like yesterday

It was January 27, 2002. I was preparing for Jamb then. My family went to my hometown for a relative burial leaving only me at home. After reading for a while, I decided to switch on the TV. I cant remember which teams were playing, but I know I was carried away by the football match.....

I think it was African Cup of Nations in Mali

mizeniola:
hmmn....fifteen years oooo....the blast started in my block.... cbq 71.... back then. my mum was seven months pregnant...... didn't lose the baby though...... thank God for our lives...... after cooking pounded yam that afternoon with egusi..... .didn't get to eat....

Thank GOD you guys were safe.

stynhaq:


I think it was African Cup of Nations in Mali

I'm not sure

I was a resident in the barracks then. I had just returned from a block directly opposite the bomb store house(ATD) ammunition transit depot when the first explosion sounded. We lived on the last floor in cbq44. Initially we thought it was just gunshots from soldiers practicing shooting until the big one sounded. My mom grabbed my hands and we darted down the stairs. My dad was trying to calm us down and we just left him and ran away.

The sunday was so black. I and my mum trekked miles that night. The whole barracks was in disarray for months afterwards. My school (Command Ikeja) was reduced to a pile of rubbles. We had to attend school in the afternoon for 2 years.

I suffered severe PTSD from that experience. Surprisingly no resident of the barracks was killed by the bombs. Those who lost their lives in Oke afa were residents of Oshodi running from what they didn't even know.

d first day I trekked from osodi to orile. silent prayer yapa dat day

d first day I trekked from osodi to orile. silent prayer yapa dat day

I was there I remember standing in front of d canal I remember turning back and moving up d bridge probably d best decision in my life because if I had moved in I wouldn't be here

RIP everyone who lost their lives God, thank u for keeping me.

SFSNIPER:
Thank GOD you guys were safe.

lol....abi oooo...all safe

holamiday:
I was a resident in the barracks then. I had just returned from a block directly opposite the bomb store house(ATD) ammunition transit depot when the first explosion sounded. We lived on the last floor in cbq44. Initially we thought it was just gunshots from soldiers practicing shooting until the big one sounded. My mom grabbed my hands and we darted down the stairs. My dad was trying to calm us down and we just left him and ran away.

The sunday was so black. I and my mum trekked miles that night. The whole barracks was in disarray for months afterwards. My school (Command Ikeja) was reduced to a pile of rubbles. We had to attend school in the afternoon for 2 years.

I suffered severe PTSD from that experience. Surprisingly no resident of the barracks was killed by the bombs. Those who lost their lives in Oke afa were residents of Oshodi running from what they didn't even know.

lol....command Ikeja.... same here..... command primary and secondary later had to merge at the secondary school..... excommando for life

i can never forget that black sunday

Ikeja bombing!

It was such a terrible day. That day i saw rocket bombs propelling into the sky and exploding vigorously when landing. That scene alone caused a great chaos in Mushin. People running helter skelter. Heard rumour like Osama Bin Laden has invaded Nigeria. I ran with my younger brother leaving my family behind since they didnt wanna run...but i didnt run too far. Got home in an hour time. As we slept, we kept hearing the bombs exploding till 5am i think.
RIP to the victims of the bomb blast. It was indeed a BLACK SUNDAY.

I really have to say something about this day - 27th Jan 2012 because I realized my kid bro born 3 years earlier wouldn't remember nor have any memories even though he is a grown man now.

Dad wasn't home and my mom had just gone to meet her elder brother that Sunday morning and was to come back home by evening. Nothing really out of the ordinary was particular about that day until there was a subtle vibration around our house and all the windows gave a loud melodic shrill.

I didn't pay it much attention.

Then came the real deal !

Gbosss!!!!!

All the windows started falling from their metal handle and breaking on the floor.

Myself and my junior bro were the only ones at home. No one was around, our home was in a big compound and we had this strong home training not to go anywhere whenever our parents weren't home.

Our metal door twisted slightly at the base like a bent empty coke can.

The flower vase tilted on its side from the continuous wave of vibrations till it finally fell smashing about the house and cutting my right hand (I still have the scar till today).

The floor felt so warm and unstable like a jelly. We screamed our lungs out !!! We kept screaming! Then i decided to look out the window and saw people moving about like a sea of dots.

It was indeed a scary day.

My mom got back with tears in her eyes screaming as she got to the gate. She held us tightly for hours till we slept off that night.

We had to relocate from our home just blocks away from the Ikeja Cantonment.

thank God it was a Sunday, thank God for cdssikeja students, though already passed out from cdss ikeja before it happened.
I remembered how some elders in my area were saying nnpc was on fire.
rip to the dead especially that brother that lost his wife and 3 children.

Oga!!! so as at 2002 your school library get internet, abeg which school be that?!!

shinarambo1:
just like yesterday. I was at OAU and there were rumors about lagos being attacked. Not until we accessed CNN via our department's internet cafe that we got the real news of what was happening.

can never forget that day, omo if una see d way my mumsi dey drive dat day just to save her kids me sef fear, mumsi just dey overtake trailer dat day, thank God for our lives tho, had some good times in that barrack

I was seeing the flames from ilasa....

slurryeye:
I remember this day like yesterday

It was January 27, 2002. I was preparing for Jamb then. My family went to my hometown for a relative burial leaving only me at home. After reading for a while, I decided to switch on the TV. I cant remember which teams were playing, but I know I was carried away by the football match. All of a sudden, I heard a big bang. I initially thought it was my neighbour kids. I thought to myself that if it's any of those kids disturbing my peace, I will beat the crap out of them. Few seconds later, I heard another bang. But this time around the ground was vibrating. I said to myself, wait a minute, these kids can't have such power to bang and vibrate the ground. So I decided to go outside and observe what was going on. To my utmost surprise, I saw mammoth of crowd, everyone looking confused to what was going on. Then I went to the top floor of the 3rd house to my house which is a 3 storey building to have a better glimpse of what was going on. There I saw crowd of adults all speculating what was happening. Some said the military has overthrown Obasanjo, some said another civil war has broken out - Papa Chidi started talking about the ordeal of the civil war, and how he prayed never to witness another war in his lifetime, some said it was Cameroun fighting Nigeria because of Bakassi peninsula etc. Bro Dee came up with the most reasonable speculation that from his observation that he thinks it is an explosive factory that mistakenly caught fire and set up the chain reaction. While everyone was speculating what the situation is, Mama Mary out of nowhere with anxiety and fear written all over her face shouted let's start running to the 4th street away. Then I said how are we sure those people there are not trying to run to our own street. Bro Dee looked at me and said this young man is very intelligent. He told Mama Mary to calm down that we will continue to listen to radio to know what the problem is, then after we know what the problem is, we can strategize what to do next. After about 30 minutes later, we heard in the radio that it was a mistake from military cantonment that caused explosives to start exploding. Not too long afterwards, my pops eventually got through to my neighbour who he had tried to call like a million times in order to talk to me. He narrated what he heard from my hometown, and I told him I'm aware of the situation and everything is fine with me. I could feel panic in my mom's voice at the background (the fear of a mother). It wasn't until the next day that we heard of the bad news of how a lot of lifes were lost in the Oke afa canal. That day, I saw Mama Mary, and I asked her if she heard of the Oke afa tragic news, she said yes. Then I told her that can she see why it's not good to start running when you don't know what you're running from. She said my brother it is TRUE o. My heart goes out to all the family that lost someone in this tragedy especially the parent that lost all their kids. May God continue to condole them and may all the innocent souls lost continue to rest in peace. I pray we don't witness this kind of tragedy again in Nigeria

Moral of the lesson: Don't run when you don't know what is pursuing you, and don't pray for war when you haven't witnessed one before.

God bless you bro. May all the departed souls rest in peace.

Coldfeet:
The sound wave startterd our window in far away Victoria island! Made me wonder what the sound must have felt like to those in its vicinity

War is not good imagine hearing that sound morning afternoon and night


May their souls find rest.

Tell anybody in the world that war is not good. I can't forget 29th Oct, 2014. As a 300L student in Adamawa State University, Mubi, i saw war and i dont feel any difference from those in Afghanistan. Watched Airforce in combat with Boko haram when they invaded the commercial town of Mubi. Bombs and gunshots everywhere, soldiers with guns pulling their khakis and running away from boko boys, sounds of RPGs and all hell of thunderous sounds that will leave you turning in one spot with no where to go. To cut the incident short, we had to trek in thousands (both civilians and military) from Nigeria to Cameroon, five days in the wilderness, no food, no water, just walking for survival. Thank God ma family all survived. War is not good.

I still remember this day. I was in front of my mum's shop at Agiliti,mile 12 that day. we heard the first sound,people waved it away saying maybe a tanker felled. we heard the second again,people ran out of their houses. few minutes later,we heard that Ikeja cantonment is under attack. I didn't see my dad for three days.... fear catch me.

Electroweb:
I remember it just like yesterday. I was staying at Mafoluku, Oshodi. People were running from the unknown. Abandoning their homes. Abandoned Children crying. Confused parents looking for children. A woman fell into a dry canal in my area (Shogunle) then, no one stopped to help her. Others that slipped and fell while running were trampled on. This must be a tip of iceberg of what civil war was all about. A terrible memory. Initially we thought the Ikeja cantonement was under attack. Later we heard it was bombs detonating on their own. What caused it?The worst were the souls lost in the canal. It was dark. Those in front marched into the canal first while others followed into the dark. The canal swallowed people. That was the first time I heard the name of the canal. Its 15 years already. Its funny the way time flies.

May their souls continue to rest in peace.
Amen

So unfortunate, the description of the chaos reminded me of how we escaped Boko haram invasion of the commercial town of Mubi (Hometown of former Chief of Air staff and later Chief of defense staff 'Alex Badeh'), Adamawa State. I was a 300L student at Adamawa State University Mubi as at then. Even soldiers with guns and full body armors ran for their lives with us. The gun sounds of boko haram guns alone are thunderous not to talk off their encounter with Nigerian Airforce jets n Cobra fighters who engaged them with missiles n bombs. Bros, boko boys chased and displaced about 3000 soldiers, talkmore of the hundreds of thousands of civilians in the populated town. Thank God i survived days of treking across mountains, wilderness and rivers into Cameroon rep with no water or food. Better days ahead.

unyted:


God bless you bro. May all the departed souls rest in peace.

Amen

SexyBabe001:
God rest their souls...


Read more here..

http://www.ajayiwrites.com/2017/01/throwback-to-27th-jan-2002-ikeja.html

What a day! As a youth corper, preparing for POP in Edo State orientation camp, the news came to me as a rude shock. GSM was quite new that time with network service availability in selected states and cities nationwide. My fellow corps members who couldn't wait until the POP day had to run to Nitel in the neighbouring town of Agbo to call their families in lagos . May Lagos and Nigeria not witness such a horrible moment again . Corruption has been killing innocent nigerians for too long. That bomb explosion was as a result of corruption because the people in charge failed to do the needful, which had been well taken care of financially by the government, to avert such a horrible incident. I wonder why they're still covering up the case till now.

I was 6 years old then. I was downstairs at Airforce base Ikeja fetching water when I saw the thick clouds and it felt like it was going to rain. Can't really remember the experience, but I remember seeing fire in the sky and then My dad carried me while my mum backed my junior bro as we ran out of the barracks to local airport. It was all fun for me as a kid cos I knew nothing that was happening. We got back home around 9pm that night. I thank God for my life and my parents..
To the dead, continue to rest on..

alaskido:
The names I read on the plague confirms that they buried Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo in the same grave and here they are on NL fighting themselves. What a funny world

you see it too! This is the first thread on nairaland since 2015 where there is no religious, tribal/enthic or even colour sentiments. Maybe there is order from chaos afterall. Maybe this was part of what ultron saw.

What a sad day it was...I was in my room somewhere around Ojo barracks in Lagos that day recuperating from an auto crash I had in Nov of 2001 so I was so helpless and confused.

I first tot it was a crazy banger then I was like who will do that on the 27th of January then another series of explosions made it look like Lagos was under attack but I lay still and silently made some prayers...

What a terrible day...many lives were lost not because of the explosions perse but from anic as many people drowned in the oke afa carnal while trying to run to nowhere.

May their innocent soul R.I.P

mizeniola:
lol....command Ikeja.... same here..... command primary and secondary later had to merge at the secondary school..... excommando for life

O really. I always thought you nairalanders are ghosts. I attended Command primary & secondary too.

Cheers!

nacaz4real:
Oga!!! so as at 2002 your school library get internet, abeg which school be that?!!

yes there was internet then but you get to pay heavily. The internet cafes were very few.

I can still remember that day,some people were saying that the bomb was planted there because of Obasanjo,as he will be passing through that place that day.... naija and rumours....

Death is so cheap in nigeria.

giftedben:
I was in St. Agnes catholic church Maryland, imaging we were in the house of God but that day we had no men of faith. i could still remember the priest saying don't run! don't run! you are in the house of thee lord. Omo See running. we all thought the world was coming to an end. in 2face voice "Nobody won die but they won go heaven"

Sorry, but funny.

I commend the priest, he believes in what he says.

holamiday:
I was a resident in the barracks then. I had just returned from a block directly opposite the bomb store house(ATD) ammunition transit depot when the first explosion sounded. We lived on the last floor in cbq44. Initially we thought it was just gunshots from soldiers practicing shooting until the big one sounded. My mom grabbed my hands and we darted down the stairs. My dad was trying to calm us down and we just left him and ran away.

The sunday was so black. I and my mum trekked miles that night. The whole barracks was in disarray for months afterwards. My school (Command Ikeja) was reduced to a pile of rubbles. We had to attend school in the afternoon for 2 years.

I suffered severe PTSD from that experience. Surprisingly no resident of the barracks was killed by the bombs. Those who lost their lives in Oke afa were residents of Oshodi running from what they didn't even know.

Wasn't their fault oo. Blame poor emergency response service and inefficient information dissemination. No one outside the cantonement had a clear idea of what was happening. Chaotic doesn't even begin to describe the first few hours after the bombs went off.

Special thread.