DEATH AIMED, SHOT AND STRUCK

I was standing at the car park just after the flyover heralding one's arrival proper into Zaria, slightly dithering as to whether to risk the journey back to Abuja at such an odd hour or stop over in Kaduna and pass the night. The face on my wrist watch unequivocally pricked my brain that it was already 3pm as a warning. I spent another 30min dilly dallying whom to listen to until I finally picked my heart, the obdurate one, who prompted me towards the Abuja journey. With the hassles and haggles now over, the car's ignition startled me, jerking me up from my reverie, her gears engaged, thrusting her forward and off we went. It was an unusually cool, calm and lovely evening that my hunches couldn't hold back her excitement so it brought me good tidings of a peaceful journey, one I never knew what lurked and birthed in her path some 200 kilometers away.

About two hours later I had arrived at a village called katari along Abuja/Kaduna express road, some 80km from Zuba, Abuja. The Aura in this little agro town was one drenched with thick and almost palpable lugubriousness that mockingly negated my earlier hunches of tranquility that had obviously turned false and faded away.

Now armed to welcome whatever ominous news awaited me, I made for the hospital by the road to inquire what was different and why everyone carried a drawn face. Hey listen, this is where the whole story began:

The road safety official was obviously irated, his facie was that of a permanent mask of grimace characteristically found on one who was angry, helpless, dejected and frustrated all together. Try to create a picture of these in your head. I didn't approach this one.

The nurse on duty narrated a heart breaking tale of the devil's advocate who brought with it the grim reaper. A lady laid lifeless on the couch in the accident and emergency ward. She was one of five passengers in a Toyota SUV, V8 Jeep that was attacked just a while ago a little after the saint Peter's seminary, about 3-5 kilometers away where the road had bends, valleys and hills along its course. A favorable location and site for the highway men. They had unfortunately ran into them at about 3pm and the car received the pains of 5 bullets digging through it. One of the bullets made trivial and puerile the job it had been assigned and ordered to carry out by easily ripping through the windscreen, still propelled by enough momentum, drove through until it hit and dealt the fatal blow to its target fulfilling its mission. She was sitting at the back in the middle seat. It ruptured her right eye and found rest in her brain. Chunks of blood clots in the back seat were a sad enough tell-tale sign of the horror.

The other bullets were not as adventurous. One hit the windscreen just missing the driver's head by the whiskers, another hit the Tyre puncturing it, a fourth plummeted through the bonnet close to the left headlamp and the last, which may very much had being the first, forced its way through the front, in-between the two headlamps straight to the radiator annihilating it. The driver, by some quirk of fate, driven by valiance or trepidation, armed with a rugged car, managed to drive for another 3km, just after the seminary, and stopped. The car let out some steam, as if panting gratefully for escaping, and came to a halt.

THE ANGER

I sought to know why everyone had a mixed emotion quite different from the mournful countenance I had being quickly engulfed in and the nostalgia it brought with a tinge of fear when I remembered the similar experience I had had not too long ago on this same road (http://www.yabaleftonline.com/cheated-death-man-attacked-armed-robbers-abuja/), I importuned upon a friend who was an eye witness to all that had transpired, a road safety officer, not the angry one now.

He first started by saying, ' Romey we are finished in this country.' I inquired how and why. He then went ahead to narrate to me how he had just returned from patrol and parked when suddenly he noticed a jeep struggling to climb the hill on the opposite side of the road. When it finally succeeded, he saw a man who was obviously shaken, this one would later become the driver, screamed for help and pointing in the direction he had just emerged from, said he had been shot at by robbers. My friend had hitherto heard the unmistakable sounds made by bullets leaving, one after the other, their cartridges, sending echoes in the naked air, and dismissed the thought of robbery because it came too close to his station, more over a SARs(State Antirobbery Squad) team was mounted some meters away from him. Seeing the driver's anxiety and agitation it dawned on him that the owners of the road had come through, he quickly alerted the SARs team who were just a stone's throw away from him but lo and behold, they didn't bulge. For some good minutes, they didn't make a move, they only watched, just as helpless civilians did. It was only when traffic started building up that they made to respond by shooting in the air, an action I am bent to believe was a signal to the robbers to flee. And of course, flee did they because on reaching there they had vanished. Being the typical Nigerian police, they only displayed annoyingly on the road and left after some time. Yes, they didn't make to chase after them.

Two scenarios played out to invoke the anger and swelled the loss of confidence in the government functionaries at that moment, especially the police;

1. On a normal day, there was usually one police Hilux van station just outside the seminary gate at the U-turn. Today of all days, they chose not to be there.
Another van was usually situated at the opposite side of the road where the event occurred, today they remembered they had to be in katari, they weren't there.
The third van was always kept at the bridge at Gidan bussa, today it chose out of the blues not to be there. The question begs, where were they? And why did they all leave almost at the same time?

2. More probing into the identity of the deceased lady revealed that she was a maid to some relatives of the late Maitama Sule and that they were, in fact, coming back from his burial ceremony that took place only recently. Saddening is the fact that when the incident happened, the ladies in the car with her were whisked away by a retinue of massive SUVs that had gotten SOS on the event and came for them leaving behind this "unimportant" maid who was at that time gasping and whose life hung on the balance. She died at the facility 10min later. As at 5.30 when I touched down slightly after the drama, they relatives weren't anywhere near the girl, in fact they didn't know she was dead. They didn't care. The police was so much in a haste to give an impression they were working by taking the poor driver for interrogation that they forgot about the poor lady in the hospital. This was whence stemmed the road safety officer's anger, frustration and helplessness all at once. He told me this, 'I hate the police and I would say what I have seen today even though it would cost me my job'. He was a very angry man.

Questions begging for answers

1. Where were the over 500 police officers drafted to the Kaduna-Abuja expressway?

2. Why did the police leave their various stations? Who gave the order for them to leave simultaneously?

3. My last epistle captured some of these problems and proffered solution, was it even looked at? I am well aware that the IG got wind of it, what happened? (https://web.facebook.com/okeme.aromeromey/posts/10212354635728632 )

4. The actions of the SARs today was suspicious, it smelt collusion, complicity and collaboration if not why didn't they respond immediately when called upon?

5. When didn’t they act immediately, why didn’t they give these robbers a hot chase seeing it wasn’t up to 30min that they responded?

6. Where are the NEMA ambulances situated by the road side during the period when the airport was moved to Kaduna? Am I now free to ascribe the word Mendacious on the minister of state for health who came to the facility to lie that the program was going to be sustained?

Lastly, Nigerians, let this be a lesson to us all, nobody can change this country for us, not these crop of robbers called leaders, and it is only you and I that can. The Nigerian police needs overhauling, we need a brave and apolitical police force made of valiant men and women, not the sort of pusillanimity displayed by these shameless bunch today. I am disappointed. We demand an inquest into what played out today 7th of July 2017 along Kaduna Abuja road, just a little after Saint Peter's seminary at about 3pm. This is not a pretty kettle of fish. The hand writing is clear on the wall.

May the soul of this gentle poor lady, who was disappointed even in death, not only by the government, but by her own relatives because she was a “nobody”, Rest in peace.

Evans people @it again...

Having read through, I must confess I am not surprised.trust the police at ur own peril!...dum spiramus trebienum.

RIP to the dead

Bia @seun@lalasticlala@myndd44..Kindly take this to the promised land

I'm FTC today, show some love pals....BTW has anyone seen or heard from Evans? He ain't trending anymore

So sad

The Nigerian ppolice should beef up security on that road. This is getting too much.

RIP to the dead

Everyone knows the police are a bunch of spineless cowards especially the rotten worms called SARS. It's only how to check people's phones and harrass innocent civilians they're good at.

please help move to front page, that axis has become a Dane of attacks on a daily basis, people need to know, Nigerians need to know, we need to keep telling the government even though they pretend not to know.

Horror everywhere

Did you have to use all those big big grammar just to explain a robbery incident

I saw d car myself & also dead body when d road safety staff in katari opened it for d so called police officers 2 see & take snap shot,she was certified clinically dead in our clinic,bt it beats my imagination & kept me thinking y simultaneously all d 3 police post will leave their station same time, kamar law will definitely take is torn (what goes around comes around), today is dis poor innocent lady tomorrow we dnt know who is nxt,remember d best security around u is yourself.,May her soul rest in peace.

LordCrimson:
Did you have to use all those big big grammar just to explain a robbery incident

no sir, I plan using it on other forums not just nairaland, hence the need for d grammar, don't mind me jare just looking for a way to get my message delivered.

How are we sure the police are not the ones or the sponsors of all this robbery at the high ways? may God save us. Rip to this Angle.so painful

emmysexxy:

no sir, I plan using it on other forums not just nairaland, hence the need for d grammar, don't mind me jare just looking for a way to get my message delivered.

You over did it! Try to shorten the article and try to capture the essence of the tale paragraph by paragraph! Close by asking poignant questions about the risks of road travel in naija!

funlord:




You over did it! Try to shorten the article and try to capture the essence of the tale paragraph by paragraph! Close by asking poignant questions about the risks of road travel in naija!

ok,thanks for the observation.