Thirty two years old Aminat Jamil has been wearing sorrow like a garment since Jamil, her 37-year-old husband, was killed by an airstrike incident that occurred in Rukubi, Doma Local Government Area, Nasarawa State on January 24, 2023 alongside.

No fewer than 52 lives were lost in the bombing that left in its trail massive loss of lives and property. For Aminat, in particular, the tragic incident was like a red hot knife driven into her heart. It prevented her beloved husband from seeing his only seven-month-old boy grow as he had wished.

When visited the family of Jamil in Doma where Aminat is taking refuge on January 25, Aminat was in agony and kept sobbing in spite of the efforts sympathisers made to console her.

Nothing, she said repeatedly, could replace her late husband.

“My husband was a honest and hardworking young man,” she said.

“We were married for more than four years without an issue until seven months ago when I gave birth to a baby boy.

“He was so happy when the baby came, but death did not allow him to see him grow up. How do I take care of him? Who will provide food for us?”

Aminat said her late husband was a local hunter and a farmer who left their home in Rukubi, Ekye Development Area, Doma Local Government of Nasarawa, with his dogs in the noon of January 24.

“Incidentally, the little boy was crying as he was going away. He had earlier assisted me to wash some dirty clothes in the morning, which is something he was not doing before.

“He even attempted to help me hold the boy but changed his mind when his cry was too much. Maybe the little boy had any inkling that his father would die same day.

“As he was leaving for the bush for hunting, he bid me goodbye and kissed his son’s hand, asking him to stop crying and telling him that he would be back in the evening.

“Later in the night, we started hearing that a bomb from an unknown direction had killed a lot of Fulani pastoralists alongside some farmers in the bush at the border between Benue and Nasarawa states.

“When I didn’t see my husband, I became worried. I ran to neighbours whose relatives were equally missing. A few hours later, the corpses of many people were brought, including that of my husband, and were buried immediately.”

Aminat said she wanted the government and security agencies to help her find the killers of her husband, saying: I am a very poor woman. I don’t know how I will cater for the little boy he left behind.

“Life will be very tough for me and my boy. I cannot cater for them alone. I don’t know where to run to now. I don’t know what to do. People should help me.”

To worsen her plight, Aminat has no roof over her head. She was only assisted to Doma alongside other residents of Rukubi where they were abandoned to their fate. She and her boy were taking refuge in a local football pitch when our correspondent ran into her.

Wondering how she would go back to stay in the same village without her husband, she said: “We were always together at the farm and at home. I don’t think I can cope without him. My head has been cut off. I don’t know where to start from.

“To worsen the situation for me, I don’t have any picture to keep as a memory of him because I hear that our house in Rukubi has been burgled.”

Asked what kind of husband Jamil was, Aminat said: “He never laid his hand on me for one day. He was killed on Tuesday and every day of my life since the incident, I think about him because he was everything to me.”

Balkisu Agie, another widow of Alago extraction, whose husband was also killed in the bomb blast, told our correspondent amid sobs that they were married for more than 10 years before his death in the incident at Rukubi along Benue/Nasarawa border where they were farmers.

She said on the fateful day, she was preparing the evening meal when suddenly the sound of the bomb blast occurred.

She said: “My husband had earlier gone to the farm to harvest his yam tubers. The entire area was on the run. We ran under the cover of the night for hours before we got to a place we considered safe.

“We were lucky to have escaped unhurt because so many other villagers could not make it into safety as they were affected by the blast.

“While I was able to escape, my husband who was on his way back home from the farm, was not that lucky as the blast killed him. We were running away from the blast but my husband ran into it.

“I am a petty trader and I don’t know how I would be able to train the little kids because my husband provided everything.

“That is why I’m calling on the government to investigate the situation and punish the perpetrators.”

(The Nation: Text, excluding headline)

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