Ikeja bomb blast: 22 years after, victims, residents recount tales of loss, recovery

On that fateful Sunday, *Mrs. Zainab Ayoola, nine months pregnant, sat in her living room when a loud bang shook the house. Filled with fear, she ventured out from her home on Ajejunle Street, Onigbongbo, seeking to know the cause.

An image of the entrance of the Nigerian Army Cantonment, Ikeja, Lagos. Credit: Omon Okhuevbie/The Record.

On January 27, 2002, Mr. Olakunle Akinlabi, a shoe designer, upon witnessing billows of smoke and the staccato of earth-shattering explosions, thought the world was coming to an end. He had left his house at Onigbongbo, Ikeja to visit a friend in Surulere when the pandemonium broke out with blasts at the Nigerian Army Cantonment in Ikeja.

As he reached Palm Groove in Lagos, loud bangs and dark smoke filled the sky. Rumours spread about a bomb exploding in Maryland, destroying everything.

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“I summoned courage late in the evening in the midst of the blast and went to my house located behind the Ikeja  Cantonment, only to find everywhere deserted. The house was wrecked, people had abandoned their homes and shops. I had to sleep in an empty mosque that night,” Akinlabi shared with The Record.

On that fateful Sunday, *Mrs. Zain…