Late in 1994, an 87 year old man passed
on in a village close to Amai, Kwale, Delta
State . The late man's grand son, Ufiaka
(26 years old and fairly educated), was
given some money and asked to travel to
Agbor to buy a fine casket for his grand
pa's burial. Ufiaka left base early and
arrived Agbor in good time to purchase
the casket and make the return journey
same day,
He was fortunate to get an open back
white coloured Peugeot 404 pickup
heading for Amai. He, however, had to
ride in the back of the pickup with the
casket because two market women
travelling to Amai were already seated in
front with the driver.
On the home journey, they ran into a
heavy rain storm close to Uronigbe and
Ufiaka quickly opened the casket, lay
himself nicely in the well padded interior,
covered the lid and used the folded
newspaper he had with him to leave a
small opening between the lid and the
main body of the white casket to ensure
adequate ventilation.
The interior of the casket was very
comfortable and Ufiaka soon fell into a
very deep sleep.
The rain had subsided at the time the
pickup van arrived at Umutu and during a
brief stop there, two men travelling to
Amai boarded the vehicle at the back and
the same happened at Ubiaruku where a
man and a woman travelling also to Amai
entered the vehicle. All this while, Ufiaka
was enjoying his beauty sleep inside the
Casket completely unaware of the new
passengers who boarded at Umutu and
Ubiaruku.
The pickup van arrived Amai just after
5p.m. and the driver, who was now very
hungry, stopped in front of a busy
bukataria to have a quick bite before
proceeding onto the next village.
The sudden stoppage and revving of the
pickup's engine woke Ufiaka who then
opened the lid of the casket and rose up.
Trouble come start!
The passengers in the back of the pickup
jumped out of the vehicle from various
points and took to their heels in various
directions.
The people eating in the buka (including
the mama-put and her service girls) who
saw the white casket open, and a "ghost"
step out, ran off all over the place some
with balls of eba and akpu in their hands.
Ufiaka, seeing people running 'helta
skelta' was convinced that armed robbers
were operating and decided to take-off in
the direction three of the passengers,
including the woman, were running.
When the three passengers realised that
Ufiaka was running towards them, they
increased their speed and shouted
"ghost! ghost!" and, to further worsen
the situation, Ufiaka was dressed in white
up and down with white shoes to match
that day.
With the shouting of 'ghost', other people
in their homes came out to see what was
going on and on seeing people running
at high speed all over, they joined in the
race for their dear life and the number
just swelled.
The driver and the two market women
were the only people who knew what
was going on and they had a hell of a
time calming the people down and
explaining that … he merely needed
shelter, while it was raining ,
Are you still there!
Ok, Practice Laughing Session throughout
the remaining days of the year ’2013.
Just to brigthen up ur day!