Rose Ejembi, Makurdi
Saturday April 30, 2019, would have been a day of mourning for the day the family of Mr Godwin Odeh as the last child of the house, 13 year old Gabriel suffered severe burns from an explosion which emanated from the dump site he was trying to burn.
But just by a dint of fate and divine intervention, God stepped in and saved the young boy after spending over three months in hospital.
That fateful Saturday morning, the family of Odeh had woken up and prayed to God for a blessed day. Little did they know that something bad was already cooking in the offing.
That day, being the last Saturday of the month earmarked for environmental sanitation in Benue State, the head of the home said he had engaged his four children in clean up of the house after dropping off his wife in church for church clean-up.
Trouble, however, started when the father of four asked the last child of the family, Gabriel, to take the dustbin to the dumpsite just in front of the compound and burn it. Odeh insisted that what happened that day was nothing but a bomb explosion. He was washing his car while his son was trying to fan the dumpsite to flame. Suddenly there was a very loud explosion, which attracted many people within the neighbourhood to his house.
The state Inter-Party Advisory Council (IPAC) chairman said as he looked up, he saw his son, Gabriel, enveloped in flames running towards the house and shouting his name:
“I was washing my car and he was to come and wash the mother’s car. But before then, there was a dustbin at the veranda that I asked him to take to the refuse dump just outside the compound and burn.
“So, when he was burning it, he was there nursing the fire, then suddenly, a bomb exploded from the dumpsite. He raised the alarm immediately and when I raised my head, I saw my son running into the compound with fire all over his body.
“Luckily at that time, I was already washing my car and I had a basin of water beside me. I confidently held the basin and splashed the water on his body because the more he was running the higher the fire was going.
“When I poured him the water, the fire quenched so I had to pull off his cloth which was already getting melted to his body. After I peeled his cloth off, people came from far and near the house because of the sound of the bomb.
“Everybody was giving his or her own advice. Some said I should pour palm oil, some said I should go for raw eggs, some said somebody should pee and pour on his body. Eventually, I applied the oil and immediately put him into the car, called the mother who was in church and then drove him straight to Madona Hospital.
“On getting to the hospital, we were immediately attended to. The doctor poured a chemical on him, which helped to peel off all the burnt skin on his body. After then, the hospital commenced treatment on him. We were there for two days and the hospital discovered that some facilities would be needed to aid him in recovering faster because of the degree of burns.” 
They were discharged from Madona and referred to Benue State University Teaching Hospital (BSUTH) where Gabriel was immediately wheeled to the theatre: “They worked on him just like how they use to sandpaper something. They peeled off almost the whole skin of his body in the theatre and he was then taken to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
“Actually. It was God that saved him. If not, with the degree of burns he sustained, even the nurses were surprised on how he was able to recover.
“It’s God. Actually while he was in the ICU, every patient that we met in the ICU died. Only Gabriel was able to survive. Even those who were at the verge of healing, when they discharged them, the next day, they would die.
“While at the hospital, I even began to learn how to push corpse because most of the patients that were there died one after the other and I was part of the people who used to push them to the mortuary.
“I think God has something for Gabriel if not, I don’t think he would be alive today. Even when I look at him now, I’m surprised. It is God. It is not the amount of sickness that one carries that kills a person but when God has a special care for someone, He will certainly do it. For Gabriel to live, I think it is for a purpose.”
The family spent over N1 million on Gabriel’s treatment. Odeh said the family had no money at the time the incident happened and was only waiting to get a loan for the treatment of Gabriel’s elder sister who had been down since childhood.
He expressed appreciation to as many spirited Nigerians who assisted his family financially during the period of Gabriel’s treatment and eventual discharge from the hospital:
“He missed a whole term from school but he is back to school now. We give all the glory to God and equally appreciate all those who supported us financially and otherwise during that trying moment.
“How the fire came we can’t tell but it was a bomb and not a container of insecticide as people are thinking. I think somebody must have planted a bomb there because it is only my family that uses and takes care of that refuse dump.”