MY BRUSH WITH DEATH - PART 1

There is a Yoruba proverb that states "Afìkọ̀kọ̀jalè, bí ọba ayé ò rí ọ, tọ̀rún rí ọ". In translation, it means "God sees all". The day I almost died was the day I understood the powers of God and my trust and faith in him. To properly narrate this story, I will begin with the misfortune I met prior to the incident that got my mind unsettled. I have always been careful with people I associate with ever since my days of school in the United Kingdom. I recall the wise words of my father always said to his kids "Remember the son/daughter of whom you are and keep away from bad influences". This was the era of credit card scams that were quite rampant in England at the time. I kept well clear of such influences and focused on my studies. I have always been a good, law abiding, peaceful person and I've never been involved with questionable characters in my life until last year when one of my so-called friends from school in Nigeria introduced me to his dodgy uncle-in-law (his mother in law's younger brother) who lives in the states.

I had the utmost respect for the so-called uncle at the time. He approached me that he needed some forex in the states and had Naira available in Nigeria to swap as the Central Bank of Nigeria was not making Forex available in the country. In my naivety, I decided to speak to another associate who introduced me to a former classmate of his who I would later realize to be a "Yahoo" boy. I am sure at the point, you've realized this situation did not end well and probably broke down quick. You are absolutely correct as the case ended up at Police HQ in Abuja with both parties claiming innocence. I will blog about this story on a later day and my experiences with these fraudulent characters. In a nutshell, the police and my family got involved in this case which was a great embarrassment and disappointment to myself and my family. How could I have been so stupid to let such characters into my life.

On Wednesday November 1st, 2017, I recall returning from Abuja on the first flight to Lagos after police questioning regarding the case with the yahoo boy and the dodgy uncle in-law. I was so disappointed in myself and completely embarrassed that I could not muster a word to my brothers throughout the flight. On my way home from the airport, I bumped into my dad who was clearly worried about me and felt it was best for me to stay home and not turn up to work as he could see I was quite devastated about the situation. I was so angry with myself to allow such a thing happen. My father always said, "you are only as good as your name" and his greatest gift to his kids was his surname. He has lived his life as a model father and respectable person in the society.

On Thursday 2nd of November, I was up and out of the house before 6am as I was restless throughout the night. I needed to get my mind off things so I decided to immerse myself in work. Throughout that day, I had a funny feeling, something was going to happen to me as I was told these yahoo boys always use black magic (juju). I prayed over myself and my family and rebuked all negative spirits. On my way home that very day, there was traffic leading out of work and as always police vans decided to face on-coming traffic and bypass traffic to get out of the congested area. The police officers jumped out of their van and ran towards the crossroad ahead to hold oncoming vehicles. I was right in the front of the queue at the crossroad when I was instructed by one of the officers to stop. Out of nowhere, another set of officers from local station emerged and an argument broke out. They began screaming and shouting and threatened to shoot each other. I drove my myself on this particular day and decided to sit in my car. 

The officers from the convoy pulled out their machine guns and pointed it at the local officers in front of my car. Though the local police officers did not pull out their guns, they were bold enough to struggle for the guns held by the convoy police. The local police argued that the convoy should return back to the queue and had no right to face oncoming traffic whilst they made the traffic worse. I was sat in my car and felt it was none of my concern after my own brush with the law. I assumed it was typical Lagos and it's corrupt police officers trying to prove a point to themselves. The local officers demanded I move and the convoy police cocked his machine gun and pointed at me saying "if you move, I will finish you". I noticed that the officers started arguing and fighting over the gun pointed at me. The gun is cocked and I could be hit by a stray bullet and die. My family would never know anything happened to me I thought. I immediately jumped out of my car and began to beg the officers to calm down and let the convoy pass. It was the logical thing to do and at this point, everywhere was blocked. 

The police convoy was finally allow to go whilst one of the local officers decided to chase them down to continue fighting. I believe the local police officers were intoxicated as their actions were erratic. At this point, there was a large crowd standing around whilst some tried to stop the officers fighting. A shot was fired into the air after the convoy passed probably as a sign of victory but it definitely dispersed the crowd. I was completely shook to my soul when I got home. I could not understand what had happened. If the officers had accidentally pulled the trigger, that could have been it for me. In my few years of working in Nigeria, I have never witnessed such misbehaviour by the Nigerian police. Once again, I believed it was the yahoo boys and their black magic (JuJu). I immediately covered myself and my family by the Blood of Jesus. All I had to do was make it to the weekend and I knew all would be well. I went straight to bed, quietly hoping to get through Friday as quickly as possible and in one piece.

Stay tuned for the next blog :)