Father mourns death of four children

For Sir Emmanuel Obiokwu, a Knight at the Saint Theresas Catholic Church, Madalla, Sunday December 25, 2011, began like no other Sunday. It was not an ordinary Sunday, it was Christmas day.Christmas, an annual festival celebrated by Christians the world over to mark the birth of Jesus Christ, is the reason for the season.The Obiukwus joined fellow Catholics to worship at Saint Theresas. Service was over and it was time to go home.As his tradition has always been, he stopped to exchange pleasantries with friends and other communicants.Perhaps this was taking too long and the children were anxious to go home and devour what mummy spent the better part of the night cooking.Sensing their concerns, he decided to give members of his family the key to his car parked across the road but tragedy struck. First a deafening sound-boomed, then a thick smoke and then fire. As the smoke cleared, four of his five children laid motionless. His wife and second daughter were struggling for their lives.For Obiokwu, life cannot be the same as he cut a picture of a very distraught man.When our correspondent caught up with him at the National Hospital, his brown French suit had blood stains all over.As he stood at the entrance of the Emergency Ward, he could only rely on what he was told about the condition of his two surviving loved ones, because entry was restricted.Narrating his ordeal, Obiukwu said We had finished service and were about to go home.I was on my own, I gave my children the keys of my car, but as they were about to cross the road, we saw a car driving past and then fire.In short, it was like thunder. The next thing, the roof of the church blew off.My car is in pieces, my four children were on the road when this happened. I am sure they didnt survive. My wife and our second daughter are here, seriously injured.Whether they will survive is what I dont know. I am praying. Weve not gone back for the bodies of my other children.Several telephone calls from concerned friends and relatives forced him to cut short the interview as he became increasingly agitated not knowing the exact state of the two survivors.
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