Kerosene Explosion: Widow Recounts Near-death Experience

For Mrs. Elizabeth Edet, a widow, from Ikot Efum village in Ibiono Ibom local government area of Akwa Ibom State, who was recently inflicted with severe burns on her skin, following the explosion of adulterated kerosene she purchased from a roadside vendor, life, can better be described as a huge misadventure characterised by bitterness, pains, agony and neglect  by those that matters in the society.

Mrs. Edet whose physical looks has been altered , fears that her last days on earth might never be normal again, excepts the government and good people of her state , and other well meaning Nigerians , comes to her rescue.

The widow screamed out repeatedly that her remaining years on earth would be meaningless unless she gets urgent intervention to help her undergo a corrective skin, facial surgery , said she was further shattered as she was still battling with the trauma of her husband’s demise.

For her, life dealt her a heavy blow with her husband’s passage and while she was on the verge of recovery, life again, presented her a bitter pill. her near-death encounter amid kerosene explosion.

Narrating her near-death experience, the widow, a former civil servant who resigned after her husband’s death to venture into business as her salary was too meagre and not sufficient for her children’s up keep said, I returned from the market on that fateful day, and unable to find a gas refill outlet by that time of the night, I opted for kerosene and made for the nearest vendor. Not knowing that the kerosene had been adulterated, I poured the liquid into the stove, lighted a match stick, and in a split second, I was devoured by a sudden explosion from the stove. My face and chest were burnt to an unsightly measure.

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Still nursing the emotional trauma of losing her dear husband, who paid the supreme price fighting to keep Nigeria one, but later died of protracted illness in 2008, Mrs Elizabeth Edet, said life has become one sad and painful experience to behold as a single mother for so many years.

Mrs Edet lamented that her remaining years on earth appear meaningless in her current condition. This is so because, after the sad demise of her husband, life has become like a bitter pill so hard to swallow, following her near-death encounter amid kerosene explosion.

When interviewed by LEADERSHIP Weekend in Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, Mrs Edet, while speaking in tears, lamented that several appeals for help from good-spirited Nigerians, corporate entities and the office of the first lady and wife of the State governor, Mrs Martha Udom Emmanuel, had not yielded any positive results, forcing her to live in isolation.

The widow, who survived the fire incident, which fatally disfigured her face beyond recognition, and parts of her chest region, said she had full confidence, judging from antecedents, that the first lady would have come to her aid if she had seen her letter.

Under her pet project FEYReP, Mrs Emmanuel, has in the last seven years been addressing the scourge of rape, Gender-Based Violence (GBV), empowering women, and building houses for widows, but Mrs Edet wondered why her case could be different considering several overtures to her plight.

“I had written several letters to her office since I suffered this fire attack due to adulterated kerosene. The first lady is always very concerned about the plights of the less privileged people. She’s been up against Gender-Based Violence (GBV), rape, children’s right, education, and women empowerment.

“That was why when the incident happened, I had to seek help from that office because she’s the mother of Akwa Ibom’s less-privileged and the downtrodden. Therefore, my hope as a widow was that my condition would be redeemed as long as my case was before her.

“But surprisingly, I am yet to get any response from the letters sent to her office concerning my situation as a widow in a complicated case of being bodily disfigured in an unexpected fire explosion caused by adulterated kerosene,” she lamented.

Mrs Edet, who said she has not been able to afford further correctional surgeries on her face and extraction of previous stitches, told LEADERSHIP Weekend that she had made several appeals to the commissioner, Ministry of Women Affairs and Social Welfare, Dr. Ini Adiakpan, with a view to facilitating her appeals for intervention.

Her words: “During one of such visits, the Commissioner, Dr Ini Adiakpan, told me that my case was beyond the Ministry, and, therefore, advised me to write to Her Excellency, Mrs Martha Udom Emmanuel, which I did, through her Ministry.

“They said they will call me,  but I have not heard from them since then. I am tired. My thinking sometimes is that Her Excellency may not have seen my letters or, I just didn’t have anybody to speak for me. But I have heard what she is doing for others. The widow I am, and  in this condition, how would I be able to visit people’s offices and become a public spectacle?”

Mrs Edet, who was battling excruciating pains, recalled that her late husband, retired Staff Sergeant Benedict Edet, served the nation at 35 Battalion in Calabar, Cross River State, before returning to his state of origin on voluntary retirement and later died following a protracted illness in 2008, leaving her to cater for their six children.

“Following my husband’s death, I had to brace up to the responsibility of singlehandedly catering for my household until the calamity struck, and altered my routine of single parenting.

“I resigned from public service and took to yam selling because the salary was not enough to cater for my family. On that fateful day of the incident, I had just returned to Uyo from Enugu, my regular place of purchase, and needed to prepare a meal for the night.

“Unable to find a gas refill outlet by that time of the night, I opted for kerosene and made for the nearest vendor. Not knowing that the kerosene had been adulterated, I poured the liquid into the stove, lighted a match stick, and in a split second, devoured by a sudden explosion from the stove. My face and chest were burnt to an unsightly measure.

“I was rushed to St. Theresa’s Hospital at Use Abat, where I spent a month. I was discharged in September, but three days later, I noticed some liquid substance coming out of my eyes. I then rushed back to the Hospital and the Doctor there, Dr Ukut, asked me to pay another money for surgery, which I did and he carried out an operation on my eyes.

“Unfortunately, the Doctor (Dr. Ukut), who carried out the operation was said to have travelled to Ibadan, before the expiration of 14 days prescribed to monitor the development before the next steps were taken. He thus embarked on the said journey without removing the stitches just on the thin roof of both of my eyes.

“After 21 days of the operation, Dr Ukut was still unavailable to remove the stitches, this led to more excruciating pains that would keep me awake for two straight weeks.

When I could no longer bear the pains made worse by increasing periods of sleeplessness, I pleaded with another medical practitioner, one Dr James, in the same hospital, to help me out but he refused on grounds that he is not an Eye Specialist. He rather referred me to the University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH) for further action.

“At UUTH, I met one Dr Margaret Antia who booked me for a plastic surgery. Yet, the old stitches were not removed. I was rather asked to go back to St. Theresa Hospital to meet my first Surgeon, but this time, I was told that Dr. Ukut no longer worked there.

“That is how I became stranded. I then went back to the Teaching Hospital the second time but Dr Margaret had gone on leave. I went to their eye department and they referred me to the University of Calabar Teaching Hospital (UCTH). The excuse was that they did not have the required apparatus.”

“At UCTH, only the lower part of my left eye was worked on; the upper part which was my main challenge was again left untouched. The doctor categorically informed me that he could not remove the threads because he was not the one who performed the original surgery.

“Frustrated, tired, yet in unbearable pains, I returned to UUTH to meet and explain my ordeal to Dr. Margaret; but Dr Margaret blamed me for going to UCTH, arguing that I should have waited for her to return from her one-month leave.

“Nevertheless, Dr Margaret scheduled me for another operation in November 2020, a cost of which was put at the sum of 150,000.

“I did not have the money at that time because I had spent so much at Unical. But by the time I was able to raise the required money, the woman (Dr Margaret) had traveled abroad. I have been there severally but told the same thing. I have tried to reach her through the number she gave me but I could not reach her”.  She explained with a trembling feeble voice. The

Now stranded and left in the dark, the widow has had to live in perpetual pain from the over two-year-old surgical threads and burns, while trying frantically to get help from any source at all.

“Since that time, I have been looking for help everywhere. I have gone to Abuja Hospital but could not get help because I do not have the money anymore. I have been forsaken and abandoned even by those I thought were my people,” she added amid tears.