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...More Tales of Woe
By Osamudiamen Ogbonmwan
LAGOS EDITION
Wonders, it is often said,
would never end. Everyday
one gets to hear about new and strange developments in almost all areas of endeavour and sometimes, it is so disheartening to note that it is mostly due to man’s inhumanity to man. The effects of these tales are made even worse each time one hears them that it just makes one wonder and wonder..
The tale I heard penultimate weekend when I rushed to a friend's bedside at the Ikeja General Hospital made me wonder what kind of world we really are in. Truly, I was hurt beyond comprehension, not because it had happened to someone I know, no. If it had happened to someone else, it would still have shocked me all the same.
The news of Shade’s (not real name) admission at the hospital had been surprising. Surely, her presence had been missed at our friend’s wedding which I had retruned from to hear that I should rush down to the hospital.
Hospitals as you already know are not my favourite leisure places. Even to pay anyone a visit there always sends shivers down my spine. Thus, if you conclude that I am allergic to such places, you wouldn’t be too far from the truth, but all the same I had to go and see Shade.
At the hospital, in one of the many wards, laid Shade with a bruised cheek, sleeping. By her side was her fiance, Bayo and two other friends, one of whom had called me.
It was getting to some minutes after eight that evening and we had been asked out of the ward before I could make a meaning out of the tale one of my friends was telling me.
He had said that Shade was on her way from the Island a day earlier, in the night when she was not only mugged by the taxi driver who had picked her from the Island, but was also assaulted by some hoodlums.
The taxi driver, I learnt, had right at the middle of the Third Mainland bridge stopped the car in pretence that it had developed a fault. He then walked to his car booth, picked up a gun and went back into the car where Shade was still waiting patiently, unsuspecting anything fishy was going on.
Suddenly, to her dismay, she saw this scary-looking gun being pointed at her by the taxi driver and fear gripped her. According to the story, the driver demanded for her handbag, a package she had with her and her slippers. Sensing a little resistance from her, the driver in annoyance used the gun butt to hit her cheek.
That obviously explained the bruise I saw on her cheek. Fearing for her life, Shade had quickly handed over everything after the driver also threatened that he was going to shoot her and then dump her corpse into the lagoon.
After the robbery, she was thrown out of the car and the taxi zoomed off into the night.
Left all alone on the bridge with nothing and barefooted, she began trekking towards Oworonshoki. On two occasions she tried stopping a car but none stopped. A few minutes later as she went on, a van stopped some feet ahead of her. Thinking it some form of goodluck, she jumped into the vehicle. Sadly, as they moved on, she tried relaying her ordeal to the group of four men who were in the vehicle.
Instead of them going through the old toll-gate way to Ikeja, Ogba where they said they were headed, the vehicle diverted to the Ketu route. Sensing additional trouble, Shade started pleading that she should be dropped. In response, she went through another round of beating (Strange, isn’t it?).
Well, I later learnt that it was very close to the popular Mile 12 market that God intervened in her case by positioning some men of the Nigeria police at a check point. As He (God) would have it, the men upon sighting the police, quickly pushed her off the vehicle and made a u-turn. It was then she got help that brought her to the General hospital.
Quite a story it was but really it is amazing how many more of these and many more we get to hear every time, without much effort being made to track down the hoodlums. It was just by a stroke of luck that Shade happened to be free and safe. Who could tell where those strange men were taking her to, or what they would have done to her?
As I ruminated about this, my mind went back to the taxi driver who suddenly turned into an armed robber. Really, there is nothing we won't experience in this world especially in this country.
Among items that were stolen from Shade were two mobile phones, a digital recorder, some amount of money and a few other valuables.
Though the doctor had assured us that she’ll be well enough to leave the following day and that we could all return home, Bayo insisted on staying back.
The rest of us thus had to leave but as we walked to the bus stop, we delved more into the activities of evil-men who masquerade as angels, especially in the night only to pounce on unsuspecting preys.
Inside me, my heart sank as the travails that Shade went through in the hands of her captors came flooding back in my mind and I was overwhelmed with pity for her.
Shade’s ordeal, indeed, made me begin to wonder afresh whether one will ever be safe on Lagos roads at night. |
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