She had a pointed nose, a big charming smile, elegance,
carriage, and captivating eyes, they told Saturday Sun. She graduated in 2015
after which she and her fiancé, Aminchi David, 34, agreed to tie the nuptial
knots. They fixed Saturday October 15, 2016 for their wedding in Bauchi. Before
that, Victoria’s send forth was slated for Sunday October 9 at Sabon Gari in
Jalingo.
“She was enjoying
one of the happiest days of her life,” one of her blossom friends told our
correspondent of Victoria’s disposition during the send forth. Sadly, it was to
be Victoria’s last happy moment in life as death came calling after the ceremony.
“It is painful,”
the friend broke down and cried profusely. “She looked ravishing in her yellow
colour lace with blue headgear to match. Victoria was gap-toothed and when she
smiled it was so beautiful,” said her childhood friend who has not stopped crying.
“Victoria’s chief
bridesmaid Joan Joshua fell ill when the news reached her that her best friend
had died in a motor accident,” Armstrong said.
After four years of
courtship, the intending couple agreed for the wedding to take place at COCIN
church in Tudun Maizamani on Bayara road in Bauchi metropolis.
Victoria’s send
forth was an opportunity for her childhood friends to get together to rejoice
before she would travel to Bauchi to be joined in matrimony with her fiancé in
church.
Her father ASP
Hallan Bawah and Naomi, his wife of 29 years, were there to support their
daughter.
Her elder brother
and firstborn who worked in Jigawa State was always there to support while
Rejoice, her immediate younger sister and a split image of Victoria was in
Bauchi putting finishing touches to preparations. While Rejoice stayed back in
Bauchi to help coordinate the wedding plans, Victoria’s chief bridesmade Joan
travelled with the bride to Jalingo. Joan and others who attended from Bauchi
left Monday morning while Victoria, her mother and Blessing, Rejoice’s friend
planned to leave Jalingo on Wednesday.
That fateful
morning of October 13, Victoria and her mother departed Taraba for Bauchi for
the wedding on Saturday. Those coming from far had embarked on the journey to
Bauchi for the wedding.
Hallan said after
the send forth, he watched as his wife and daughter left the house in Sabodn
Gari Jalingo on their way to Bauchi. He said: “I was with them till they left.
They boarded a commercial bus around 3:00 that afternoon.
After some hours I
was expecting that they have reached Bauchi. I called my wife but the line was
not going. Later I called my daughter’s number and a Federal Road Safety
official picked and introduced himself. When I inquired why my wife or daughter
could not pick the calls he told me that they were involved in a fatal
accident.
He told me that two
women and a man died on the spot. He told me the place and I told him I was
coming” Hallan said he left Jalingo by 4pm and when he got to the scene he was
told that the victims had been admitted at the Cottage Hospital in Bambam,
Gombe State. He learnt that the accident was as a result of a burst tyre.
“When I got there I
met my wife she was already dead,” he recalled. He struggled to stop himself
from breaking down, he was anxious to see his daughter and prayed nothing bad
happened to her.
The grieving Hallan
said:
“When
I saw her, she was unconscious. Her hand was broken. There was no treatment
being carried out on her. I asked the staff of the hospital why they abandoned
my daughter like that and their reply was if they treat her they were not sure
whether the money would be paid. This broke my heart.
How
can someone’s life be so cheap. I was crying to know that my daughter could
have been saved and yet they refused to save her life because of money”
He said that the
officials of the NURTW went to get ambulance that would rush my daughter to the
Federal Medical Centre in Gombe for proper medical attention but before they
could return his daughter had given up the ghost.
“Another girl who
was a friend of my second daughter, Rejoice also died in the accident. Her name
was Blessing. She was accompanying my daughter and wife and so they travelled
together. Blessing also died on the spot.”
David, the groom to-be was feeling on top of the world on that Wednesday morning, when he received
a phone call from Victoria. “I
had gone to Kafin Madaki around 6am and was returning to Bauchi when I received
her call at past 8am that they had left Jalingo.
“She
asked me where I was and I told her I was in Kafin Madaki in Ganjuwa and she
was surprised and asked me what took me there but I laughed and I told her I
went to see my aunt and she replied that she was on her way. I was expecting
her call around 2pm. I tried her number but it was switched off.
“I
became worried and told a friend Bami that her phone was switched off and it
was unusual. By 3:30pm, her younger sister Rejoice called me and informed me
that she heard that Victoria and their mother were involved in an accident.
That her friend Blessing was also with them
“I
then called their father who told me that he heard and that he was already on
his way to the place that the accident happened. It was Bambam in Gombe State.
I called my sister who lived there with her husband. She later confirmed that
my Victoria and her mother and Blessing had indeed died”
David said he
doesn’t know how to live with the loss of Victoria.
“She
was everything to me. She was beautiful, kind, God-fearing. Her death is a
great loss to my life. When my father in law told me what happened on phone, I
said I am finished. But I give God the glory. In life you plan but God knows
everything. I am still seeing everything as if it is a joke. That Vicky my love
will be with me.
That
is why I am wearing my blue wedding suit. Blue is Victoria’s favourite colour.
She chose blue as our colour and I am honouring her today by wearing it. I try
not to be sad but it is going to be alright”.
The
funeral of Victoria and her mother on Saturday October 15, 2016 at the
Christian Cemetery in Kagadam, Bauchi attracted a large crowd of sympathisers.
As the bodies were lowered into mother earth, the preacher urged everyone
present to live a life of service to God and humanity.