The few months I spent in Kaduna, I was scared to even step out of the house even though it was important that I left home. When I did, I navigated the streets so carefully because the news of the attacks in the cities was not happy ones.
I remember leaving camp with a promise from the state coordinator that none of us would be posted to a bandit-ravaged area only for my friends to receive their posting letters and they were posted to the same location. Less than 24hours after, the bandits burnt down the village, killed the villagers, and did a house-to-house kidnap in another community not far from there.
Barely two weeks later, my friend’s street was also attacked by these blood-sucking demons after kidnapping a little girl from her parents in the middle of the night. Thank God it was an army-dominated area, else, it would’ve been another story of human slaughtering ceremony.
Travelling back to the west from Kaduna, there were many checkpoints, however, none of them could be trusted because most times, when the bandits and terrorists attacked, they were in security uniforms, so it was a trip filled with prayers to arrive safely, and expectation for the worst.
The problem with insecurity in my dear country is not something that started today, however, it keeps growing and getting out of hands. Thinking of the home as a safe space is no longer a thing, rather it is a place where you have to pray fervently for protection so that the kidnappers and bloodsuckers don’t pay you a visit.
I travelled from Ijebu-Ode to Benin 3 months ago, and the driver didn’t miss telling us how well we should prepare for the sudden attacks that could happen. At some point, we took a break from the road while he inquired from other drivers coming from Benin if anything had happened before we continued our journey.
You may want to ask what our police officers especially, have been doing to ensure this becomes history… well, it is pathetic situation. I remember travelling from Abeokuta to Ibadan with one of my guy friends in a commercial vehicle. The driver got parked because he refused to give them the usual tip, and my friend was instructed to come down by the police officers, because according to them, “he looked like a criminal”. A proper search was conducted on him, and without finding anything implicating, he was asked to follow them to the station because he was a “suspect”. His offence? He had two phones. The crazy part was we were travelling for a sickle cell awareness program because my friend has sickle cell.
The police officers do not care about the safety of the people, rather they care more about what they can get from the people. Criminals go free if they can tip the officers, while the innocents get accused, harassed, and arrested because they could not provide a tip for them.
My brother was another victim of their harassment. Thank God for the timely intervention of passersby who didn’t allow the officers arrest my brother for not making a transfer to tip them.
For a very long time, we’ve been dreaming of a country where we can sleep peacefully, and travel safe without the incident of highway kidnappings, robbery, and killings, however, the situation keeps getting pathetic. Hopefully, we will get it right soon, and return the country to being a safe place for the inhabitants.
Images are mine.
This is my entry to #inleo prompt for June.
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
