₦airaland Forum

I am writing this to officially document a tragic historical event that has been completely left out of internet archives, as it happened before the era of smartphones and social media in Nigeria.

Between 2004 and 2005, around the month of October, a devastating lightning disaster occurred at Army Day Secondary School, Effurun (located along the NPA Expressway).

It happened just after regular closing hours, while students were staying behind for after-school lesson classes. A heavy downpour suddenly started, accompanied by severe thunder and lightning.

While some students playing football on the school field fell down but miraculously survived, the lightning struck the main tarred road nearby. The strike hit a roadside shade where people were seeking cover.

Tragically, seven people lost their lives that day: Three students of Army Day Secondary School (including my classmates, Oghenero and Tidings). They were severely burnt by the strike. A pregnant woman who was a passenger on a motorcycle. The commercial motorcyclist (bike man) who fell alongside her. A local roadside mechanic working nearby.

Several other students and bystanders were knocked unconscious by the blast. They were rushed to the nearby Army Hospital, where they thankfully survived.

To honor the deceased, Army Day Secondary School later built a decorated memorial grave on the school grounds where students held prayer services and dropped flowers. Because this happened in the mid-2000s, local print newspapers never digitized the report.

I am posting this today so that anyone searching the internet for Army Day Secondary School Effurun, Oghenero, or Tidings will find this public record.

May their souls continue to rest in peace.

Amakis10:
am writing this to officially document a tragic historical event that has been completely left out of internet archives, as it happened before the era of smartphones and social media in Nigeria.Between 2004 and 2005, around the month of October, a devastating lightning disaster occurred at Army Day Secondary School, Effurun (located along the NPA Expressway). It happened just after regular closing hours, while students were staying behind for after-school lesson classes.A heavy downpour suddenly started, accompanied by severe thunder and lightning. While some students playing football on the school field fell down but miraculously survived, the lightning struck the main tarred road nearby. The strike hit a roadside shade where people were seeking cover.Tragically, seven people lost their lives that day:Three students of Army Day Secondary School (including my classmates, Oghenero and Tidings). They were severely burnt by the strike.A pregnant woman who was a passenger on a motorcycle.The commercial motorcyclist (bike man) who fell alongside her.A local roadside mechanic working nearby.Several other students and bystanders were knocked unconscious by the blast. They were rushed to the nearby Army Hospital, where they thankfully survived. To honor the deceased, Army Day Secondary School later built a decorated memorial grave on the school grounds where students held prayer services and dropped flowers.Because this happened in the mid-2000s, local print newspapers never digitized the report. I am posting this today so that anyone searching the internet for Army Day Secondary School Effurun, Oghenero, or Tidings will find this public record. May their souls continue to rest in peace.

May their souls continue to rest in peace. It will be good of the names if the victims are mentioned here.

Wow. nobody hear of this. RIP to the dead. You can also include the picture of the memorial raised in their honour here

Thank you for these. May their souls rest in the Lord.

What a tragedy! May their souls RIP.
Do not take cover at the tallest structure during rain

Things are really happening
Who can unravel such mystery?
Rip to those who lost there lives

Amakis10:
I am writing this to officially document a tragic historical event that has been completely left out of internet archives, as it happened before the era of smartphones and social media in Nigeria.

Between 2004 and 2005, around the month of October, a devastating lightning disaster occurred at Army Day Secondary School, Effurun (located along the NPA Expressway).

It happened just after regular closing hours, while students were staying behind for after-school lesson classes. A heavy downpour suddenly started, accompanied by severe thunder and lightning.

While some students playing football on the school field fell down but miraculously survived, the lightning struck the main tarred road nearby. The strike hit a roadside shade where people were seeking cover.

Tragically, seven people lost their lives that day: Three students of Army Day Secondary School (including my classmates, Oghenero and Tidings). They were severely burnt by the strike. A pregnant woman who was a passenger on a motorcycle. The commercial motorcyclist (bike man) who fell alongside her. A local roadside mechanic working nearby.

Several other students and bystanders were knocked unconscious by the blast. They were rushed to the nearby Army Hospital, where they thankfully survived.

To honor the deceased, Army Day Secondary School later built a decorated memorial grave on the school grounds where students held prayer services and dropped flowers. Because this happened in the mid-2000s, local print newspapers never digitized the report.

I am posting this today so that anyone searching the internet for Army Day Secondary School Effurun, Oghenero, or Tidings will find this public record.

May their souls continue to rest in peace.

May Good Lord rest their souls 🙏

We are about to enter the late rains period which normally comes with Lightening and Thunder claps.

The onset of the Rains usually brings storms and windy conditions why the late Rains are occasioned by Lightening strikes and Thunder claps...

Be careful and watchful as we go about our daily lives for those in open countryside and farmers in the field.

Lightening usually strikes the tallest object in any area.

May their soul continue to rest in peace

Poor citizens, may their souls rest in peace 🙏

https://www.news24.com/schoolkids-die-in-thunderstorm-20041110

Hmmm we don't keep records. As I read this story, I remembered the 2002 bomb blast in Lagos. Did you know I recently found that story in the archives, in a foreign magazine as one of the top 100 disasters of our time? First, I shook my head because other disasters they mentioned were like nuclear bomb etc. Second, I noticed how January 27 just fades into oblivion like it's another day. This year, you hardly saw the mention of it on our news stations and social media, e just pass like that. Make I no talk about the cenotaph. We don't keep records at all. Na since yesterday foreign media don de use style remind us of 9/11. What a country.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=piLPnCHpjsI



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TywnEO5e394

That's where I finish and in ss3 then. Please

You want it in Nigeria archive and you're not sure of the date. Go do your research well and properly document it. You said the Nigeria Army built a memorial ground in the school premises to honour the students that died in the unfortunate incident yet you didn't drop any pictures. Represent your school and Delta State well by writing a good piece, ask the Army in Delta, they might have pictures and also give you the date of the sad event.

Good way to go.
God rest their souls.

190theclown:
Have anyone growing up ever had any accounts or seen a UFO back then while growing up in Nigeria

If yes please share your stories

yes, I have had such an experience....once. The year should be around 2002 or 2003, I can't place it correctly. Time was around 11pm-12am or so. I was on the balcony of the topmost floor of a 3 storey building. In the distance was a deserted range of hills (probably 5-7km away). I was staring....it was dark night. Suddenly, I saw what looked like some sort of flying craft hovering over the hills....it appeared to be oval in shape and had several lights. It wasn't a helicopter. I was VERY VERY certain about that. It hovered for several minutes. I was shocked but I watched. Then as suddenly as it appeared it flew back up....it looked more like a vertical flight. It went up and up until it disappeared completely into the skies. Till date, I'm quite convinced it was a UFO sighting. I found it very hard to tell anyone about it but I eventually shared it with just 2 people. By the way, it was here in Nigeria not overseas!

Till today scientists are yet to unravel the cause of lightning. Lightning struck my 350k Samsung phone around June while plugging it overnight. For close to three day the phone was hot!! DEAD FOR LIFE!!

190theclown:
Have anyone growing up ever had any accounts or seen a UFO back then while growing up in Nigeria

If yes please share your stories

Yes, angels and demons are real

extraterrestrial life are real

Stay away from open field when it's raining , and do not stay under a tree . It's dangerous .

I remember this incident, it made headlines on the early morning newspaper shows on radio

Amakis10:
I am writing this to officially document a tragic historical event that has been completely left out of internet archives, as it happened before the era of smartphones and social media in Nigeria.

Between 2004 and 2005, around the month of October, a devastating lightning disaster occurred at Army Day Secondary School, Effurun (located along the NPA Expressway).

It happened just after regular closing hours, while students were staying behind for after-school lesson classes. A heavy downpour suddenly started, accompanied by severe thunder and lightning.

While some students playing football on the school field fell down but miraculously survived, the lightning struck the main tarred road nearby. The strike hit a roadside shade where people were seeking cover.

Tragically, seven people lost their lives that day: Three students of Army Day Secondary School (including my classmates, Oghenero and Tidings). They were severely burnt by the strike. A pregnant woman who was a passenger on a motorcycle. The commercial motorcyclist (bike man) who fell alongside her. A local roadside mechanic working nearby.

Several other students and bystanders were knocked unconscious by the blast. They were rushed to the nearby Army Hospital, where they thankfully survived.

To honor the deceased, Army Day Secondary School later built a decorated memorial grave on the school grounds where students held prayer services and dropped flowers. Because this happened in the mid-2000s, local print newspapers never digitized the report.

I am posting this today so that anyone searching the internet for Army Day Secondary School Effurun, Oghenero, or Tidings will find this public record.

May their souls continue to rest in peace.

so sad!! Lightning strikes can be extremely devastating! That's millions of volts right there.

symbianDON:
yes, I have had such an experience....once. The year should be around 2002 or 2003, I can't place it correctly. Time was around 11pm-12am or so. I was on the balcony of the topmost floor of a 3 storey building. In the distance was a deserted range of hills (probably 5-7km away). I was staring....it was dark night. Suddenly, I saw what looked like some sort of flying craft hovering over the hills....it appeared to be oval in shape and had several lights. It wasn't a helicopter. I was VERY VERY certain about that. It hovered for several minutes. I was shocked but I watched. Then as suddenly as it appeared it flew back up....it looked more like a vertical flight. It went up and up until it disappeared completely into the skies. Till date, I'm quite convinced it was a UFO sighting. I found it very hard to tell anyone about it but I eventually shared it with just 2 people. By the way, it was here in Nigeria not overseas!

I'm not doubting your story o, but how did you see something 7km away. Do you know the distance which is 7km.
Marathoners will run it for close to 30min or more?

sleek214:
You want it in Nigeria archive and you're not sure of the date. Go do your research well and properly document it. You said the Nigeria Army built a memorial ground in the school premises to honour the students that died in the unfortunate incident yet you didn't drop any pictures. Represent your school and Delta State well by writing a good piece, ask the Army in Delta, they might have pictures and also give you the date of the sad event.

He has started the process, so it will get refined over time. When he said between October in 2024 and 2025, I just closed it to October 2024 as the date.

Kalulu44:
I'm not doubting your story o, but how did you see something 7km away. Do you the distance which is 7km.
Marathoners will run it for close to 30min or more?

I mentioned that it was a dark night. My judgment of the distance may have been a bit incorrect though but I knew where the hills were. By road, probably about that distance but by flight path, it could be way shorter. However, I knew what I saw but everything i witnessed was by judgment from the appearance of the lights.

Hmmmm.... I'll be 46 in some days time, but they're many disasters I haven't witness live. It's after they have happened I see them.
E.g: I lived almost all my live in Lagos and also in a time where it doesn't take two min to burn a thief live. But I have never witness it in person where they pour fuel on someone and light him up.
I drove for 20yrs in Lagos as a commercial bus driver where inside traffic you will be beside huge container trucks that are not even well place or trying to navigate a pothole. I rmbr how sometimes most of my passengers used to jump down from my bus to take cover until I am out of where the containers are.
Thru out my years of driving, I have never witness live a container turn over, but I have seen the aftermath of over 30 fallen containers in Lagos roads.
I have seen hundreds of thunderstorm in my life. But I haven't seen it destroy or kill anybody in my presence except after the did have been done.
I'm one of those who doesn't believe in ghost or extraterrestrial being or UFO cus I haven't seen any in my 46yrs of existence, even though people claim to.

symbianDON:
I mentioned that it was a dark night. My judgment of the distance may have been a bit incorrect though but I knew where the hills were. By road, probably about that distance but by flight path, it could be way shorter. However, I knew what I saw but everything i witnessed was by judgment from the appearance of the lights.

Lolz! That's why I said i didn't doubt your story. I just knew you guess the distance and it wasn't correct.

There are signs lightening gives before striking.
1. The hair on your arms and legs straighten
2. You'll hear a faint buzz in the air and possible tingling feeling in your arms
3. You might sense a sharp metallic taste on your tongue
4. You'll perceive the smell of ozone.

Most people don't have a science background so won't know what a metallic taste is or ozone smells like. But that rising of hairs and tingling, everyone can recognise that.

Lightening starts from the ground to wards the sky. Keep your legs very close together, crouch as much as possible and do not lie flat for any reason. It will help if you aren't near metallic objects as well.

The chances of it happening are very remote and this isn't what you should ever worry about except one of your ancestors really pissed off the gods and your a(s)s is something the gods fancy.

Lost some students and teachers! Painful day indeed

I am posting this today so that anyone searching the internet for Army Day Secondary School Effurun, Oghenero, or Tidings will find this public record.

If this incident was widely reported back then by mainstream media, then I don't see why it would not be on the internet. A lot of events that happened way before the age of the internet are accessible through Google searches today.

RIP to the end ...Nigerians is quick to forget history...this is why nobody is talking about justice for that boy police shot dead at delta state ....and this is why tinubu want his past to remain hidden forever

190theclown:
Have anyone growing up ever had any accounts or seen a UFO back then while growing up in Nigeria

If yes please share your stories

Yes have seen one when I was very young at Ikire (Osun State) around 2021-2002 at about 6pm..I saw an aircraft that is totally different from every other types of aircraft have seen in real life and movies..The one that was close to what I saw that very day was UFO..I didn't know what I saw that vanished within few seconds in up in the sky that very day....I started having understanding of what I saw when I started watching science fiction movies...I was 6-7 years old then

May their souls rest in peace.

Na real omo I nor hear any story like this for warri o
Anyway rip