Mr. Steve Nwosu, Editor of Daily Sun, who was shot July 25 on his way to the office, has spoken of his narrow escape from death, disclosing that his experience has opened his eyes to the need to get closer to God.

Nwosu, who has resumed duties at the Apapa, Lagos-based tabloid, was attacked by armed robbers along the Old Ojo Road, Maza Maza, about 2:30pm. He was shot in the head by robbers who trailed him on a motorcycle from a nearby bank where he went to withdraw money. He was shot at close range through the right-side glass of his Honda Odyssey car and the money he went to withdraw from the bank taken away.

Sharing his experience of the incident, Nwosu in a lengthy interview published yesterday by Saturday Sun spoke of how prompt action by sympathizers who took him to the nearest hospital, and the professionalism of the hospital staff saved his life.

He spoke of how, in his driver’s efforts to avoid the traffic jam, they took Fagbenro, a back street not too far away from where The Sun’s Corporate Head Office is located.

Then trouble! Said Nwosu: “On getting there, we met another traffic jam. Being the last vehicle on the queue, as we stopped, someone just walked up to the side of my glass, on the passenger’s seat of my vehicle, where I was, raised his shirt and pulled a gun from his jeans trousers, pointed it straight at my head and blasted it through the glass.

“The bullet hit me on the head and I slumped over to the left with blood pouring. I heard him saying, ‘where is the money?’ He did not ask for the money before anything else. No conversation, no statement, nothing . . . Immediately he took the money, he jumped on the motorcycle and they turned back. When they left, I was rushed to the hospital.”

Nwosu said he never expected the bullet and thought he was going to die.

“I was not expecting it,” he said. “It was surprising and immediately the bullet hit me, I shouted Jesus! Jesus! Jesus! because I thought I was going to die.”

Asked how he got to the hospital, he replied: “My driver and one other Good Samaritan rushed me to the hospital. They just followed me. It was like I literally jumped to the hospital holding the wound with blood streaming down and I was just shouting ‘Blood of Jesus’ until I got to the hospital. When I got there, they looked at it and said it was just one hole on my head. They tried to clean the wound, scrape my hair and closed it.

“They suspected that there might be something inside, but they still managed to stitch it, while they took me for initial scan and x-ray, which revealed a hole that was close to the skull, though it did not hit the skull.”

Thankfully, the hospital, incidentally named Safehands, did not reject him as Nigerian hospitals are won’t to do to patients with bullet wounds, and did not even ask for a deposit before attending to him.

Hear him: “Somehow, when I got there, I identified myself and told them that it was an armed robbery attack. Moreover, I was still wearing my official identity card. I also gave them my wife’s phone number and that of my Deputy Managing Director. These were the ones that came to my head immediately, just in case I passed out. So, they were convinced and did not hesitate to commence treatment.”

On how he would describe the incident, Nwosu said: “It was a sad experience and I think God gave me a second chance at life because actually, I should be a dead man. But for some reasons, God said I should live again. He gave me chance to sit back and look at my relationship with Him; to continue doing all those good things I have been doing and change on those I have not been doing well.”

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