A survivor of the recent mayhem
that killed several corps
members in the North narrates
how she escaped death by the
whiskers as mourning parents
and relations of victims call on
the National Youth Service Corps
to release the bodies of their
children in this report by SEGUN
OLUGBILE
When Seun Adewumi completed
his degree programme at the
Olabisi Onabanjo University ,
Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, his
dream was to take care of his
62-year-old mother, a retired
cleaner of the Judicial Service
Commission, Lagos State .
With enthusiasm, he gladly
received his posting to Bauchi
State for the one year
mandatory National Youth
Service Corps Scheme with the
hope that he would get a good
job after his service year and
move his mother from the
uncompleted building she lives
in, at Agbado, an outskirt of
Lagos , to a more decent
apartment.
But this dream was shattered as
life was snuffed out of the 27
year-old Political Science
graduate in a gruesome manner
last Monday by post-election
rioters in Giade, the
headquarters of Giade Local
Government Area of Bauchi
State.
Born in Lagos , Adewumi, a
native of Imojo-Ekiti in Oye Ekiti
Local Government Area of Ekiti
State, was the only graduate out
of his mother’s six children.
One of the corps members that
survived the attack where over
seven of her colleagues met their
untimely deaths, Wumi, said
Seun was butchered to death by
rioters.
According to the female corps
member, who spoke with our
correspondent on the telephone
on Sunday, the corps members
became agitated when they
discovered that the office of the
Independent National Electoral
Commission located beside the
Youth Corps Members lodge in
Giade had been set on fire by
the rioters.
“The Youth Corps Members’
Lodge is just a stone throw to
the INEC office, so when we saw
it on fire, we all ran to the police
station for safety. The Divisional
Police Officer allowed us to stay.
But a few minutes later, the
rioters numbering over 300,
swooped on the police station,
stoned the policemen, overran
the station and set it on fire. The
rioters had their way because the
policemen were only shooting
teargas canisters against them.
One of the stones hit the DPO
on his head and it was at this
point that he ordered all of us to
leave the station,’’ Wumi said.
The corps members were thus
forced out of the police station
into the waiting hands of the
devil-inspired rioters. While
some, including Wumi, escaped
with wounds, seven others
including Seun could not make
it. They were butchered by the
rioters, who were protesting the
defeat of Gen. Muhammadu
Buhari, (retd), the candidate of
the Congress for Progressive
Change in the April 16
Presidential Election.
“It was a war situation and all of
us were just running at different
directions. They were inflicting
machete cuts on us. They hit me
on the head, on the shoulder
and back but I kept on running.
But thank God, two men on
Okada just emerged from
nowhere and confronted my
attackers. They pleaded with
them to leave us alone but when
they discovered that they were
desperate to kill all of us, one of
them just carried me and put me
on the motorcycle and sped off.
I was taken to a village far from
the war zone,’’ she narrated.
When her rescuers saw that she
could die of bleeding, they
reported her case to the Emir of
the village that assisted her in
getting medical attention.
“The emir sent a car to take me
to the hospital. But before I was
rescued, Seun and others were
killed by the rioters in a
gruesome manner. Some of
them were set on fire,” she said.
At Lagos , Seun’s mother, Mrs.
Beatrice Adewumi, had become
apprehensive after learning that
corps members were being killed
in some parts of the North
including Bauchi.
Though her son spoke with her a
day earlier (on Sunday), she still
called her younger brother,
Venerable Samuel Ojo, who is
also the Vicar of The African
Church Cathedral, College Road,
Ifako-Ijaiye, Lagos to confirm if
he had spoken with Seun in
recent time. The woman, who
spoke with our correspondent at
the vicarage of The African
Church Cathedral on Sunday
amidst sobs, said she did not
know that that Sunday was the
last time she would speak with
her son.
“He called me on Sunday and
said I should please tell one of
our distant relations who is a
lawyer to get a job for him as he
was scheduled to complete his
service year in June. I did not
know that that would be the last
time I would speak with my star.
Seun had made a lot of promises
to me. He said I should not
worry that he would take good
care of me.
“Each time he came home from
school for food and money, he
would call me aside and say,
‘Mummy, don’t worry, I know
that you don’t have money but
please try and finance my
education, I will soon complete
my education and after
graduation, I will take very good
care of you.’ I didn’t know that
that promise would not be kept.
They have killed my hope, they
have killed my shinning light,”
the woman who was surrounded
by relatives and her brother,
Ojo, cried.
Beatrice said she retired in 2009
from the service of the Lagos
State Government. She pleaded
with the NYSC to release the
corpse of her son to her.
“My brother spent over four
days before he could get the
NYSC Bauchi to confirm his
death. But please tell them to
give me his corpse because in
our tradition when you say
somebody is dead, we must see
the corpse. Omo eni ku san ju
omo eni sonu lo, e bami gbe oku
re abi kile fe fi se leyin igba ti eti
pa (It is better to lose a child to
death than to say a child is
missing, please give me his
corpse or what else do you want
to do with the corpse after you
have killed him,)” she said to no
one in particular.
Seun’s sister, Ruth, also said that
the family would miss the
deceased in so many ways.
“Seun suffered; many times he
would go and do odd jobs to
complement the little money our
mother could give. He was
determined to succeed but see
how some senseless, uneducated
and barbaric people just killed
him. Government should scrap
the NYSC. They should
compensate my mother because
she sacrificed a lot to see him
through the university,” Ruth,
who is a trained hairdresser, said.
Speaking on the trauma the
family had gone through since
the young man was killed on
Monday; Ojo expressed
bitterness at the inability of the
NYSC to inform them about the
death. This, he said, further
traumatised the family as
members were left in the dark
concerning his whereabouts.
Narrating the event that led to
the death of Seun, Ojo said Seun
called him around 10am on
Monday, April 18 to pray for him
as there was a crisis in Giade.
“I asked him what the problem
was and he said the rioters had
attacked the INEC office and
they were on their way to the
police station because their
lodge was not far from the
place. I said he should not worry
that we would be praying. But
when I called him back, he said
they were already in the police
station. I was happy but when I
called him back around 1pm his
mobile phone was dead. I
became apprehensive.
“We started calling all his friends
and other people from our
church that were posted to
Bauchi. Nobody knew anything
about his whereabouts. Some of
them gave us the number of the
Bauchi State Coordinator of the
NYSC, that of his personal
assistant and the Zonal Inspector
of Seun’s local government. We
tried all the numbers but
nobody picked it. It was not until
Thursday that the personal
assistant to the coordinator
picked my call and confirmed
that Seun was no more. What
the NYSC did was not fair. We
were traumatised and subjected
to emotional trauma between
Monday and Thursday last
week,” he said.
The angry cleric said if not for
God and his faith in Jesus, he
would have gone on a
vengeance mission, because
according to him, there was no
reason why corps members
should be attacked because of
election.
“Even Seun did not participate in
the election. He was not one of
the corps members used for the
election, so why should they kill
him. They should just release his
corpse to us and they should
compensate the family,” he said.
Some of the seven corps
members killed at the police
station, according to one of the
Corps Liaison Officer in Bauchi
State , include Ukeoma
Ikechukwu, Anslem Sylvester
Nkwazema, Obinna Okpokiri and
Kehinde Adeniyi.
According to the CLO, who
pleaded anonymity, because
corps members are not allowed
to speak to the press, Ukeoma
and Nkwazema were chased by
an angry mob on April 18 and
ran into a police station at Giade.
“Unfortunately, the mob was so
large than they were able to
overpower the policemen after
setting the station on fire and all
the corps members ran out.
Ukweoma and Nkwazema were
beaten to death by the mob.
“Adeniyi, a Muslim, who was
identified by one of his pupils,
was subsequently beaten to
death by the angry mob.
Okpokiri, according to a friend
that schooled with him in the
United Kingdom, was not only
beaten to death, but was burnt
after he was killed.
The CLO added that Ikechukwu
had by 6.48am that day posted a
message on his Face book wall
narrating how he nearly escaped
being lynched by election riggers
after he refused to hand over
ballot papers to them during the
election on April 16.
“The timely intervention of the
police saved me,” Ikechukwu
whose Face book name is
Ukeoma Aikfavour, had written.
“These CPC supporters would
have killed me yesterday, no see
threat ooo. Even after forcing
under-age voters on me, they
wanted me to give them the
remaining ballot papers to
thumb print. Thank God for the
police and I’m happy I could
stand for God and my nation. To
all corps members who stood
despite these threats especially in
the North, bravo! Nigeria our
change has come,” he added.
On the same Face book page
some hours later, a friend
named Vivesparkle Emmanuel
wrote,
“Please, you all should pray for
Aik. As at yesterday, some angry
mob were shooting guns around
them. They were able to take
them later to the nearest police
station only for him to call that
the mob were threatening to
burn down the place. We’ve lost
contact with him because his
phone has been unreachable.
Kindly pray for him and others in
the same condition. Thanks.”
But the call for prayers came
rather too late as Aik was one of
the unfortunate corps members
killed by the rioters.
Their deaths have, however,
renewed calls for the scrapping
of the NYSC as most parents
including Ojo, are now calling on
the Federal Government to do
away with the scheme.
But Seun’s mother said that if
government would not scrap the
NYSC, it should only post corps
members to states within their
geo-political zones.
“In Ekiti, we don’t maltreat corps
members. We take care of them,
we give them free
accommodation, if the Hausa
people are killing our children,
then they should not be posted
to the North again. Let them
serve in their geo-political zones.
But they should please release
my son’s corpse so that we can
give him a proper and befitting
burial,” the sad mother said.
to him, there was no reason why
corps members should be
attacked because of an election.
“Even Seun did not participate in
the election. He was not one of
the corps members used for the
election, so why should they kill
him. They should just release his
corpse to us and they should
compensate the family,” he said.
Some of the seven corps
members killed at the police
station, according to one of the
Corps Liaison Officer in Bauchi
State, were Ukeoma Ikechukwu,
Anslem Sylvester Nkwazema,
Obinna Okpokiri and Kehinde
Adeniyi.
According to the CLO, who
pleaded anonymity, because
corps members are not allowed
to speak to the press, Ukeoma
and Nkwazema were chased by
an angry mob on April 18 and
ran into a police station at Giade.
“Unfortunately, the mob was so
large than they were able to
overpower the policemen after
setting the station on fire and all
the corps members ran out.
Ukweoma and Nkwazema were
beaten to death by the mob.
“Adeniyi, a Muslim, who was
identified by one of his pupils,
was subsequently beaten to
death by the angry mob.
Okpokiri, according to a friend
that schooled with him in the
United Kingdom, was not only
beaten to death, but was burnt
after he had been killed.”
The CLO added that Ikechukwu
had by 6.48am that day posted a
message on his Facebook wall
narrating how he nearly escaped
being lynched by election riggers
after he refused to hand over
ballot papers to them during the
election on April 16.
“The timely intervention of the
police saved me,” Ikechukwu
whose Face book name is
Ukeoma Aikfavour, had written.
“These CPC supporters would
have killed me yesterday, no see
threat ooo. Even after forcing
under-age voters on me, they
wanted me to give them the
remaining ballot papers to
thumb print. Thank God for the
police and I’m happy I could
stand for God and my nation. To
all corps members who stood
despite these threats especially in
the North, bravo! Nigeria our
change has come,” he added.
On the same Face book page
some hours later, a friend
named Vivesparkle Emmanuel
wrote,
“Please, you all should pray for
Aik. As at yesterday, some angry
mob were shooting guns around
them. They were able to take
them later to the nearest police
station only for him to call that
the mob were threatening to
burn down the place. We’ve lost
contact with him because his
phone has been unreachable.
Kindly pray for him and others in
the same condition. Thanks.”
But the call for prayers came
rather too late as Aik was one of
the unfortunate corps members
killed by the rioters.
Their deaths have, however,
renewed calls for the scrapping
of the NYSC as most parents
including Ojo, are now calling on
the Federal Government to do
away with the scheme.
But Seun’s mother said that if
government would not scrap the
NYSC, it should only post corps
members to states within their
geo-political zones.
“In Ekiti, we don’t maltreat corps
members. We take care of them,
we give them free
accommodation, if the Hausa
people are killing our children,
then they should not be posted
to the North again. Let them
serve in their geo-political zones.
But they should please release
my son’s corpse so that we can
give him a proper and befitting
burial,” the grieving mother said.