NYSC And Post-Election Violence
The elections have come and gone. The last set of elections took place on Saturday April 11, 2015. And thank God the post-election violence in 2015 was reduced to the barest minimum. Unlike what happened in 2011 when I was serving as a National Youth Serve Corps in Bauchi State. I was one of the victims of post-election violence there. Here is my story and my fellow youth corpers’ story. And my name is Omowunmi.
On April 18, 2011 one of my fellow corpers and friend Tomisin Teidi (who also happens to be my course mate when we were in the university) called me to assist him with the beans he was cooking on that fateful morning. We were serving as youth corpers in Giade Local Government in Bauchi State. Some of the other youth corpers were resting and relaxing in their rooms in the youth corpers’ lodge after a busy weekend working as adjunct staff for INEC during Election 2011.
While Tomisin and I were cooking, we received an alert from police officers of the presence of some irate youth in our local government (GIADE) who were burning down churches, property as well as killing people especially strangers and non-indigenes. The police officers told us to run to the police station for safety as the incensed youth were planning to head for the youth corpers’ lodge to attack and kill us.
A few minutes after we got into the police station a crowd of young Giade men arrived at the front of the station. They had gone to the youth corper’s lodge and met it empty so they figured that the only place we could go to for safety was the police station. They had the guts and the effrontery to tell the police officers to send us (the corpers) out and hand us over to them, as their mission was to deal with us.
The Divisional Police Officer instructed the other police officers not to shoot at any of the outraged youth; so they were only shooting bullets into the sky and throwing tear gas in order to scare the mob away but they refused to go away. After a while the Giade youths picked stones and were stoning the police station.
The police officers eventually ran out of ammunition and called for reinforcement from divisional headquarters in another local government but all efforts proved abortive. When the incensed youth realised that the police were no longer shooting into the sky and throwing teargas, they soon figured that the policemen had run out of ammunition. We ran from one room in the police station to another for safety. We were terrified! We were scared stiff! Some of us youth corpers were in tears! We were saying our last prayers. We called our families bidding them farewell because by this time there was little hope of us getting out of this horrifying situation alive. My battery was down; I had to borrow a friend’s phone and put my SIM card in it to call my parents. I was crying on the phone telling them that they may not see me again. And I said my farewell to them. They said I should tell them what was happening. I was crying when I told them we were being attacked by a mob of Giade youth. I told my parents to pray for me and my fellow youth corpers, that the chances of us making it out alive was slim.
Eventually the mob set the police station ablaze while we were still inside and shortly afterwards the roof caved in. Now we were trapped between the devil and the deep blue sea! We were trapped between the irate youth and the burning building! Where do we go? Where do we hide? Where will we all end up? How soon will we all die? How quickly will death make its way towards each one of us youth corpers? How suddenly will the hand of death snatch us away from this our earthly existence? How can we beat death at its own game? How many of us will make it alive through this “broad daylight” nightmare? These are some of the questions that were running through my mind and my fellow youth corpers’ minds.
We were petrified to say the least, knowing fully well that the mob was waiting for us to run out into them. The angry Giade youth were ready for us with their ammunitions of machetes, swords, knifes, stones, heavy sticks, etc.
After saying our last prayers and giving our family members farewell messages over the phone, we eventually had no choice but to run out when the police station got engulfed with fire. We had been smoked out of the police station to encounter death face to face! When we ran out of the station, we ran into the enraged Giade youth and they pursued us with vengeance, hitting us all over with their ammunition while we ran aimlessly with no sense of direction. It was a terrifying, horrendous experience!
As I ran for my life, panting and breathless, wondering how to out run my pursuers, some of the angry youth finally caught up with me. They stoned me several times, hitting heavy sticks on me and suddenly I felt a machete on my head and another one on my arm after which I dropped to the ground and started bleeding profusely from my head and arm. I became weak after losing so much blood. And I could no longer get up to run for my dear life
hile I lay helplessly on the ground, a group from the mob surrounded me and kept hitting me heavily with sticks with the singular motive of wanting to take the last breath out of me, I pleaded for mercy but they simply ignored me and acted as if they didn’t hear!
Suddenly two unknown men ran swiftly towards my direction to rescue me but the angry young men refused to spare me. The two unknown men forcefully lifted me from the ground. As they carried me away some of the irate youth resisted and struggled, tugging my body and hoping to tear me away from them. My rescuers managed to get me away from the scene and placed me on a motorbike and sped off to a village far away from the crisis area. I was hidden in a hut where I bled severely for hours. I was told to endure the pain till evening when I would be taken to the hospital for treatment. They couldn’t take me to the hospital during the day for fear that the angry youth will see them and attack them and me.