Wednesday 8 August 2012

Kogi church attack: How we escaped – Survivors

Twenty-four hours after the deadly attack on a Deeper Life Bible Church, in Otite, Okene Local Council, Kogi State, survivors yesterday recounted how they cheated death .

The gunmen, suspected to be Boko Haram, attacked the worshippers during the weekly Bible study, killing 16 people.

Picture credit:saharareporters

The death toll rose to 20 by Press time yesterday.

The survivors said that the gunmen first blocked the church’s three entrances before spraying the occupants with bullets.


Picture credit:Saharareporters

The hoodlums, they noted, arrived at the premises in three unmarked Toyota buses, disarmed the policemen keeping watch outside the gate and blocked the three entrances before opening fire.

Picture credit:Saharareporters
Narrating his ordeal to our newsmen who visited the injured victims where they were hospitalized in Okene yesterday, one of the survivors who identified himself as Clement Okoro, said that he was lucky to have temporarily gone out of the church to ease himself when he suddenly heard sporadic gunshots.

 “When the gunshot subsided, a few of us ran to the church only to see the lifeless bodies of believers littering the ground with blood flowing like an abbatoir, I am only lucky that my wife and children were still in the shop when I left for the church, this is a most horrendous situation,” he lamented.



Picture credit:saharareporters

 Another victim, said they were in the church for the weekly Bible study when all of a sudden they heard shooting.

He said all he could recall was that he found himself in the hospital with bullet wounds on the legs and arms.

One of the pastors who refused to disclose his name, said he and his wife escaped by divine intervention.

He described the episode as “most wicked because when they shot the worshippers , they began to spray bullets underneath the benches in the church so that no one could escape.
Culled:247nigerianewsupdate

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