HARVEST OF DEATHS: Shock, grief as Nigerians die in mind-boggling circumstances

Anthony Iwuoma

If asked what the worth of a Nigerian’s life is, nobody would fault anyone that succumbs to the temptation to answer, nothing. Indeed, Nigerians are dying like chickens and it has become a case of one day, multiple deaths and sorrow.

The country is afflicted by an epidemic of deaths, blowing across its landscape like an intemperate hurricane. If Nigerians are not being killed by Boko Haram insurgents, they would be victims of bandits, kidnappers, herdsmen, road crashes, civil unrest, extrajudicial killings of numerous disasters.

In October this year, a 21-storey building under construction in highbrow Ikoyi, Lagos, went down, killing about 40 people, including the developer. The skyscraper collapsed due to yet to be ascertained circumstances while several dozen workers were on the site. 

Soon after the tragedy, four people died while five others were injured when another one-storey building under construction collapsed at Flourmill Estate, Magbon, near Badagry, Lagos State.

Also in Lagos, last week, eight children were found dead in a car parked inside a compound at Adelayo Street, Jah-Michael along Badagry Expressway.

The children were suspected to have strayed into the compound and mistakenly locked themselves in the abandoned car and suffocated. However, the Lagos State Police spokesman, Adekunle Ajisebutu, said the bodies have been deposited at the Badagry General Hospital morgue for autopsy to determine the actual cause of death.

Also, three persons were confirmed dead in an accident, involving a DAF truck, a Toyota Sienna and a Toyota Camry at the Olowotedo axis along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

Likewise, a truck last week rammed into students at Grammar School Bus stop in the Ojodu area of Lagos, killing two students and injuring several others.

This was happening even as the country is yet to come to terms with the chilling news of how some students in Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos, allegedly beat 12-year-old Sylvester Oromoni a d inducted injuries which resulted in the death of the lad.

One of the haunting deaths that affected the psyche of Nigerians is the mysterious death of Timothy Adegoke, an MBA student of the Obafemi Awolowo University. He was allegedly killed for a money ritual in the hotel he lodged in Ife where he had come from his Abuja base to write his examinations. Though some arrests have been made, investigations into the circumstances of his death are still ongoing. 

Furthermore, the mutilated remains of a teenage girl were discovered inside a travel bag close to a popular hotel located at Adekunle village, Adeniyi Jones, Ikeja, Lagos.

Barely 72-hours later, another corpse of an unknown young lady was also found, wrapped in a nylon bag and left by the roadside at Akora Estate, a few blocks from where the first corpse was abandoned.

Lagos again was on the front burner last month when five persons, comprising one female and three males and a 10-year-old boy, died in a gas explosion at Ojekunle Street, Ladipo, Mushin area of the state.

Also last month, in Ilorin, Kwara State capital, the lifeless body of a 17-year-old secondary schoolgirl, Aminat Abdulkadir, was recovered by the Kwara Fire Service.

Similarly, a corpse was also found in Asa River, along Emir’s Road in the same Ilorin. Spokesman of the state Fire Brigade, Hakeem Hassan Adekunle, in a statement in Ilorin, said the body was found with the hands tied to his back and head covered with some tattered wrapper.

On September 21, this year, an early morning accident at Ogbelaka Junction claimed no fewer than nine lives in Edo State. The accident occurred when a sand-laden tipper collided with two minibuses, conveying commuters.

Earlier in June, 17 people were confirmed dead in a fatal road crash at Edozhigi town of Lavun Local Government along Bida-Mokwa Road in Niger State.

On October 13, five people also reportedly died in a fire incident, which happened in Mubi town in Adamawa State.

The benumbing litany of woes is all-encompassing and cuts across the country. According to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Borno Sector Command, Sanusi Ibrahim, Benisheikh unit of the command alone recorded 23 road traffic accidents, resulting in 55 deaths between January and October 2021.

The carnage is not only about gas explosions and road crashes. There are other causes, including communal wars, cult activities, kidnapping, among others.

As a matter of fact, according to Amnesty International, at least 115 people were victims of extra-judicial killings by security operatives between March and June 2021 in the South-east alone. The police also claimed to have lost at least 21 personnel in three months in Imo State in its face-off with operatives of the Eastern Security Network, ESN, a wing of the pro-Biafra Independent People of Biafra, IPOB.

Two of the pathetic instances involved a German-based businessman, Uguchi Unachukwu, who was killed on his way out of the country by soldiers on May 31 at a checkpoint near Owerri airport.

Another was one Mathew Opara, a 45-year-old businessman, who was shot by soldiers six days earlier in Orji, near Owerri. He had run into a team of soldiers in an armoured vehicle and Hilux vans shooting at residents on his way from work.

At least 72 persons were also reportedly killed between November 7 and 13 by non-state actors across the country. The figure consists of at least 12 security personnel, including a serving brigadier general and a retired air vice-marshal. About 61 of the victims were civilians.

Data obtained from the Nigeria Security Tracker, NST, a project of the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa programme, showed that in the first six weeks of 2021, lives of no fewer than 1,525 persons were wasted across the country.

The conservative figure covers only reported cases, arising from the Boko Haram insurgency, banditry, herdsmen crisis, kidnapping, communal and cult clashes, armed robbery, and brutality of security agents, among others.

It was actually about half of the 3,188 lives lost between January and December 2019, according to a report by Global Rights. It was also four times the 348 people killed in violent attacks across Nigeria in December 2020, as reported by a non-governmental organisation, Nigeria Mourns.

Currently, Nigeria is the third country most impacted by terrorism, going by the Global Terrorism Index 2020 after Afghanistan and Libya.

No fewer than 2,287 Nigerians reportedly lost their lives to insecurity in the third quarter of this year, according to a report by SBM Intelligence and EiE Nigeria. The report was based on media reports of the killings in Nigeria, due to violent incidents, including attacks by Boko Haram terrorists, militia herdsmen, bandits, kidnappers and gangsters from July to September 2021.

It indicated that 1,153 civilians were killed followed by bandits, 675 and Boko Haram terrorists, 170; IPOB members, 29; soldiers, 105; police personnel, 67 and immigration officers, 2.

Particularly, Zamfara State had the highest reported killings with 495; followed by Niger State, 306; Borno, 285; Kaduna, 259; Plateau State, 138; Benue, 113 and Katsina, 107 deaths.

The North West had the most reported killings, 961; followed by the North Central, 102; the North-east, 336; South-east, 137; South-south, 105 and South-west, 102.

There was weeping and mourning in Sokoto last week, as gunmen suspected to be bandits burnt commuters in a bus en route to Gayan in Kaduna State to death.

The bandits had reportedly ambushed the bus around Sabon Birni Local Government Area of the state and burnt the victims, including a Nigerien national and locals from Sabon Birni Local Government Area.

An account had it that “the vehicle which they hired for the journey was ambushed by the bandits, who opened fire on them on Monday, around Teke village in Gidan Bawa District.

They shot at the tyres of the vehicle; it somersaulted and burst into flame while the coldhearted bandits surrounded the burning vehicle to ensure none of the passengers survived.

Just last Wednesday, terrorists also invaded a mosque in Ba’are village in Mashegu Local Government Area of Niger State and killed 16 worshippers observing their morning prayer.

Rickety articulated vehicles are driven by devil-may-care drunks also contribute to the carnage on the roads.

It is without a doubt that the greatest challenge thus far is insecurity.

The seeming indolence and selective amnesia of the present administration have done much to worsen the situation. While the government was swift to proscribe and declare the likes of IPOB as terrorists, it has consistently played dumb to calls to also declare killer herdsmen and bandits as terrorists despite overwhelming evidence of their exhibitionist terrorist activities that they even admit openly, thus creating the impression that some citizens are more Nigerian than others.

When these frightening statistics are churned out, one begins to wonder if these are human beings or flies that are being wasted. Nigeria has become a country of one day, multiple sorrows. It is difficult to keep counts because hardly has one incident been recorded than another erupts elsewhere and probably recording more casualties. The question in all these killings is why people get a kick out of wasting the blood of the innocent.

It is a shame that despite the many churches and mosques in the country, this horrible behaviour prevails. The country is so down people not thinking straight anymore. Nobody is safe any longer. There is insecurity all over the country.

Some observers believe that there is a spiritual undertone in the deaths and violent killings across the nation.

Repulsed by all the deaths, the apex Christian body, the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, in a statement by the group’s Vice Chairman, Rev. John Joseph, lamented that the activities of bandits have further shown that human life was cheaper than that of chickens today in Nigeria, wondering, “How can people be productive when they are living in fear both at home and anywhere they go?”

Meanwhile, The Nigerian Xpress reported that the circumstances surrounding the death of a couple, in Warri, Delta State, have become a source of worry for the police and residents of the city.

The couple, Pa Joe Ayomike, an emeritus director of the Warri Choral Society (WCS), and his wife, Chinyere, were found dead at their residence in Warri GRA.

The deceased husband and wife were notable lovers of classical music in Nigeria.

The late WCS director was younger brother to the former chairman of the Itsekiri Leaders of Thoughts and historian, late Pa Johnson Oritsegbubemi Sunday Ayomike, while Chi-Chi, as his wife was fondly known, was a senior lecturer at the Delta State University, Abraka.