By NOELA EBOB BISONG
A grenade explosion which occurred in Limbe on June 7 2019 has left one person dead and another seriously injured. The incident occurred at about 2pm Friday afternoon, at a residence behind police barracks in New Town, opposite the head office of The SUN Newspaper.
The victim, 22-year-old Biampanbe Passale Xavier Steve, second year civil-engineering student at ISSTI/VIGET Douala, died at the spot, following a thunderous sound which went across the entire New Town and beyond, with many thinking it was yet another explosion of the National Refining Company.
The story goes that Xavier, fifth and last child of late Passale Pore David, (retired Marine Officer), was with his mother, Ada Passale and one other lady inside the house, where they had gone to pack stuff to be transported to their native Far North region, following the death of his father, last January, 2019.
As they went through their stuff, Xavier stumbled on his late father, Passale David’s bag, and began going through it. In the process, he discovered a grenade, (whether knowingly or not), and possibly tried opening, which then exploded, damaging, beyond recognition, the lower part of his body from his waist, which resulted to his immediate death, and seriously fracturing the other helper by name Susan, on her both laps as well as her head.
Xavier’s mother, who at the time of the explosion was in another room packing stuff, quickly rushed to where Xavier was, and seeing her son’s damaged body on the floor, remained uncomforted. The injured girl Susan and Ma Passale (as Xavier’s mother is fondly called) rushed outside the house in a mad and confused state, as they tried alerting the public, which was still trying to detect where the explosion must have come from.
Susan was immediately rushed to the hospital, while the remains of Xavier Steve were transported to the Limbe Regional Hospital mortuary.
The SUN later gathered that Xavier’s remains will be transported alongside the house stuff which he had come in from Douala on Thursday, June 6, to help his mother pack, to his native Far North region for burial.
It should be noted that Xavier’s father, Passale David, before his death in January this year had been on retirement for at least five years. He had died following an illness which caused him to be partially blind.
Why and for how long the grenade had been at the Passale residence, remains a million dollar question, many hold.
The Friday incident added to a week of sinister events which have been occurring in Limbe, notably a cement truck accident at Mile II the previous day (Thursday, June 6) which incurred huge damages and seriously injured two, as well as the explosion, at Cameroon’s lone oil refinery, last May 31.