Eloquent in grief, a Nigerian mother mourns her only son

London bombs terror attack :: The Times and Sunday Times Times Online - By Ben Hoyle, Sam Lister and Dominic Kennedy: "TREMBLING with grief and anger a mother yesterday mounted an eloquent, emotionally charged assault on the terrorists she fears killed her son.
Marie Fatayi-Williams said her heart had been “maimed” by the disappearance of Anthony, 26, an oil executive. Dressed in traditional Nigerian robes and clutching a photograph of her with Anthony on her 25th wedding anniversary, Ms Fatayi-Williams said: “I grieve, I am sad, I am distraught, I am destroyed. My son Anthony is my first son, my only son, 26, my only son, the head of my family. (In) African society we hold on to sons. He has dreams and hopes and I, his mother, must fight to protect them.



“How many tears shall we cry? How many mothers’ hearts must be maimed? My heart is maimed at this moment.” Dozens of her family and friends, some wearing T-shirts bearing Anthony’s face and the legend “How Many More?”, stood behind Ms Fatayi-Williams in front of a police barrier in Upper Woburn Place, North London. Many of them wept.

Across the road was Euston Station, where Anthony made his last known phone call, and a few hundred yards away was the wrecked No 30 bus.

“There has been widespread slaughter of innocent people. There have been streams of tears, innocent tears,” she said. “There have been rivers of blood, innocent blood. Death in the morning, people going to find their livelihood, death in the noontime on the highways and streets.

“Which cause has been served? Certainly not the cause of God, not the cause of Allah, because God almighty only gives life and is full of mercy. Those people who have changed the world have done so without violence, they have [won] people to their cause through peaceful protest.

“Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Mahatma Gandhi — their discipline, their self- sacrifice, their conviction made people turn towards them, to follow them.

Ms Fatayi-Williams, a Roman Catholic marketing director with Elf Oil, and her husband Alan, a Muslim doctor, had been on holiday in Nigeria. They caught the first available plane to London on Friday.

She made no effort to conceal her frustration at the slow progress towards confirming the identity of the victims.

“This is the fifth day, five days on, and we are waiting to know what happened to him and I, his mother, I need to know what happened to Anthony.""