[Photo] MIRACLE! Baby Survives Abuja Bomb Blast, Found Among Deads

The Federal Government on Tuesday released
its official death toll from the recent suicide
bomb attack on Nyanya Motor Park in Abuja,
saying it has climbed to 75 while those with
varying degrees of injuries fell to 216.
The Minister of Health, Prof. Onyebuchi, who
stated this in an interview with journalists
after visiting four of the 13 hospitals which
took in casualties in the wake of the blast,
added that "pathologists are presently meeting
and collaborating with their forensic
colleagues" from the West African Forensic
Association so that dismembered bodies could
be identified.
He also ruled out immediate mass burial for
victims insisting that identification of the
bodies would go on and government would
only consider burial "when no relative come
forward."
Chukwu added that no corpse would be
buried in a mass grave, adding that all those
who lost their lives in the blast and had
dismembered bodies would be identified and
buried individually and decently.
The minister said the review of the casualty
figure came after he had announced a
tentative toll of 72 on Monday night and after
taking into consideration "the movement of
people and some new deaths."
He said, "When we released the figures
yesterday (Monday), we made it clear that it
was provisional. It took us quite a long time
to release a provisional figures; but finally
late last evening when we released those
figures, we still issued a caveat that they are
provisional because sometimes there may be
double counting and sometimes there might
be people who were not counted.
"Now currently, having taken everybody into
consideration including the movement of
people, and some new deaths since then, what
we have now is those who have been able to
be evacuated and captured in hospitals
because if someone just have a spinal injury
and walk away, it is possible we did not
capture that.
"We have a total of 215 victims, but that has
been reviewed downward because as at
yesterday (Monday evening), we were talking
of 236; but now it is 215 because there might
have been some double counting but now we
know better.