NIGHT OF HORROR

GEORGE Onokpoma had no inclination of the horror lurking around his neighborhood on March 20, 2019. As a dedicated member of the National Youths Service Corps (NYSC), the easygoing George, known for his honesty and uprightness, never nursed any foreboding that he could be a target of violence by the same people he came to serve after leaving his comfort zone in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. George, who hails from Delta State, never knew that those he was sacrificing his one year to improve their lives were waiting in the wings to take his life. If he had known that his dreams would be cut short in such a gruesome circumstance in Bayelsa State while serving his fatherland, he would have heeded his elder brother’s advice for redeployment. His elder brother, Honest Akpos, had wanted to seek redeployment for George but he, out of patriotism, turned down the offer, saying: “I will go wherever I am posted”.h But that decision cost him his life. The 29-year-old twin and graduate of the Petroleum Training Institute (PTI) just returned from church where he went for his evening worship. He was sitting at the balcony of his quarters in Swali area of Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, evaluating the scripts of his students when tragedy struck. The quarters, where he lived with other corps members,  belonged to Mr.

Jerry Yeseme Moses, the owner of a private school, Victory International School, where George and his colleagues discharged their primary responsibilities as teachers. While Moses and his family occupied the first floor of the storey building, George and his colleagues, including other tenants, lived on the ground floor. But like a scene in a horror movie, the building was invaded by suspected cultists at about 10pm. Gunshots were heard by neighbours and in a twinkle of an eye, George was found  on the floor struggling for his life. One of the corps members was also seen gasping for breath in the pool of his own blood, while another victim lay helpless. Their attackers had fled the vicinity. Thirty-year-old Popoola Oluwatobi Olamide, a graduate of Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU) and indigene of Oyo State, died on the spot. Anthony Gbenga Dada, who hails from Kogi State, and George were rushed to the Federal Medical Centre (FMC), Yenagoa. George breathed his last at the hospital, while Dada is still battling to live again. The horror Eyewitnesses narrated the terror unleashed on innocent corps members by gun-wielding cultists. The hoodlums launched their attack under the cover of the night. Moses, who is the landlord of the corps members, said he was inside the house when he heard gunshots. He said: “I am the proprietor of Victory International School, Swali, and the corps members are my employees. On that Wednesday at about 10:30, I was watching television when I heard gunshots. I didn’t know what was happening. Shortly after, the sounds stopped. I rushed out of the house and quickly went downstairs where the corps members lived. “It was then it dawned on me that the attack happened in my building. I saw corps members lying  on the floor. I don’t really know the reason why they were shot. One of them was lying dead, while the other two were still struggling for their lives. “I alerted neighbours to help me put them in the vehicle and I rushed them to the Federal Medical Centre. Unfortunately, two of them died but one was responding to treatment.” Moses said he alerted the paramount ruler of the community immediately he heard the gunshots and appealed to him to call the police. “The policemen were not there when I took them to the hospital. But when I returned, I was told the police came”, he said. Another neighbour of the corps members, Mercy Isaac, said she went upstairs to charge her phone at her landlords’ place when he heard repeated sounds. She said: “I didn’t know that the sounds I heard were gunshots. Some other persons in the landlord’s apartment and I wanted to go out, but the landlord held us and appealed to us to wait. “Few minutes later, we heard similar sounds. When the sounds ceased, we all went downstairs only to see the corps members struggling with their lives. We later heard how it all happened. Those who killed them came and saw one of the corps members at the balcony marking his students’ scripts. “They held him and led him to the door where other corps were and asked him to knock at the door. He knocked but when a voice from the room demanded to know

who was knocking, the corps member refused to say his name. The gunmen became angry and concluded he was playing with them. They shot him twice in the head. They broke into the room and shot others”. An eyewitness, Glory John, was simply concerned about the good nature of the corps members in the neighborhood. “They don’t deserve to die”, she said. She described them as peaceful and dutiful. “They never had an issue with anybody before and anytime they were back from school, they were always indoors”, she added. Another source, who spoke in confidence, said the corps members were shot in the head. He said the attackers were obviously out to kill them. According to him, the one that died on the spot was shot twice on the head because they felt that he was joking with them. “When they gained access into the room where others were sleeping, they shot another in the head and the other in the lower abdomen. But when they wanted to go, they wanted to shoot the one that survived on the head. On pulling the trigger, they discovered that they had run out of bullets. That was why Dada survived”, he said. ‘Why did they kill my brother?’ “What did my brother do to deserve this horrible death?”, queried Akpos Honest. The slain George was Honest’ younger brother. George was special to his family

and very close to his mother, who singlehandedly trained and sponsored all of them through school. Honest, a broadcast journalist based in Port Harcourt, narrated his ordeal. He said: “He was my younger brother, he was not a distant relative nor my cousin. He was a twin; his name was George; his twin sister’s name is Georgina. He was born in 1989 and he graduated over two years ago in Petroleum Training Institute (PTI), Warri. He waited for two years just to get his call-up letter from NYSC. “I was on duty on Thursday at about 3pm when I got a call from his twin sister that someone from NYSC called that his brother was dead. She was crying as she was talking. I had to stop all that I was doing and rushed to Bayelsa. I got to Yenagoa by 5pm and saw my brother’s corpse in the mortuary”. Honest, who wept uncontrollably, said he would explore all legal means to avenge the death of his brother. He said George would not die like his fallen and forgotten colleagues. He vowed to sue all the stakeholders responsible for the safety of his brother. He said: “This is one of those incidents that happen to serving corps members and I intend to follow this to the latter. I intend to sue the Federal Government, NYSC and the Bayelsa State Government. I am only waiting  for the autopsy to be out; I will not let it go like that because my brother was an honest

Nigerian”. Describing his brother as a patriotic Nigerian, he said: “I told my brother that I will make arrangements for him to serve in Rivers State because I stay in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, but he refused because he did not like someone going through the back door to do something for him. “While in camp, I begged him to allow me redeploy him but he refused. He was a strong Christian. My mum called him the pastor of the house  and we were brought up by my mother alone. We are seven and Iam the eldest. “My mum called and begged him that his brother wanted to redeploy him to Rivers State but he still refused. He said he wanted to do it the way it ought to be done because he was a strong Christian and didn’t like passing through the back door. “When he was posted to his primary assignment, l wanted  George to serve in Daewoo because he studied Mechanical Engineering and graduated as one of the best students. I believed that since he insisted on serving in Bayelsa, at least Daewoo would have offered him security  and accommodation, but he still refused and told me that he would stay where  he was posted. “So, imagine what it feels like that I had every opportunity to remove my brother from Bayelsa and even to work in Daewoo but because he believed in the system, he did the right thing but paid with his life”. He said as at the time he spoke to our correspondent, the management of the NYSC had not deemed  it necessary to send a delegation to his distraught mother, adding that even the proprietor of Victory International School where George worked had not bothered to visit his grieving mother. On what he was told happened to his brother, he said: “They said a group of hoodlums went to  the compound where he stayed, took another corps member from another part of the building and asked him to knock at my brother’s door. He knocked and when he was not knocking well, they shot at him and that’s the corps member presently in FMC, Yenagoa receiving treatment. “And when they broke into my brother’s room, they took their phones. The next thing was, they shot my brother right in his stomach. I understand my brother died in the hospital at FMC, Yenagoa, while his roommate died instantly. “The government has a regulation that you must honour the youth service corps but  they don’t have a policy that protects the lives of corps members who have spent years passing through the Nigeria academic system, which is the toughest in the world”. Honest lamented that he could lose his mother because of the incident. “You don’t want to see my mum. My mum has not slept since Thursday(last week). She has been grieving and my mother is hypertensive. I am scared because I don’t want to lose my brother and my mother at  the same time”. He decried the insecurity in Niger Delta, particularly in Bayelsa. He wondered how

the government and security agencies allowed young men to be roaming the streets with weapons. Honest narrated: “I was told two Fridays ago that three policemen were killed. I was also informed by the police that at Kaiama, they killed some of their police officers. So, if they can kill police officers, how much more ordinary civilians in the state. “I drive through the East West Road every day; you can see how volatile security is in this state. I would say no security. I slept in Bayelsa in an hotel and a friend who accompanied me wanted  to buy something  but he was told he should hurry up, because that the place was not safe. Honest described his younger brother as very exceptional. “They say a mother has a favorite among all the children but you see, George who was killed was exceptional. George went to church on that day and was marking the students’ scripts in his room when he was killed”,he said. He added: “But I need to ask why. I need to understand the reason for the killing,

but I was only told that they are cultists and these things happen. I don’t know what they smoked but I understand my brother did not participate in the elections; so I would have said he offended someone in the course of working for INEC. But he didn’t. “So, I need to understand why. My brother  will not even insult someone he was older than; that is how humble George was. They have not seen anything. All they do is console the victims. This won’t go down like every other issue and that’s the promise except I don’t know my right. “My mother cannot spend years training George and lose him this way. George went to a private school, went to petroleum training institute; he had everything to be a better person. He spent over two years waiting for his call-up letter and you can just kill him and then you say you are sorry!” ‘He died a virgin’ Victoria  Ivwhrighe is yet to come to terms with the calamity that had befallen her. She is not believing the report that the son she loved so much and spent fortunes to train in school is no more. “They should bring back my son”, she kept shouting. Her voice was loud but sorrowfully laced with outcries. “This is a joke. George cannot die. Stop telling me that my son is dead”, she said. But from Wednesday last week, everyday that passed by brought Ivwhrighe to the reality that her son was no more. His telephone no longer rings. She could only hear his voice from the past. “I am not okay”, the melancholic woman said. She then remembered one striking feature of her son his moral rectitude. She recollected that her son was a virigin until his death. He would have no taste of a woman except in wedlock. As tears dripped down her wrinkled face, she said in pidgin English: “The last time I saw my son was December. George was a Christian. At his age, he had not known a woman yet. He said when he finished his service, he planned go to another school before settling down. “I was not privileged to go to school. So, I spent all my life working to train them in school. This thing they are telling me is making me feel pains all over my body”, she said. On how she heard of her son’s death, she explained: “I was in the market when my daughter asked me to give her my friend’s number. I felt she wanted to get something from my friend, so I sent her the number and also gave my daughter’s number to my friend. “Georgina said some NYSC officials met her and told her George sent them to her. In their presence, my daughter called his brother but the number did not go through. They said Georgina should take them to the house but she refused because she did not know them. They had to emphasize on that for some time before eventually she agreed. “When they got there, one of them went to the next compound and told my neighbour what happened. My neighbour then told Georgina. My daughter narrated the incident to my friend. When I came back, I went straight to the kitchen to prepare food to eat; as I was eating, different people were coming into my apartment. “Immediately they mentioned Geroge,  I told them I didn’t want to hear it, that I

wanted my son. The  government was the one that posted him to Yenagoa. They should go and bring him. Since then, I have not been myself. I am hypertensive and I have been the one taking care of them. When I gave birth to the twins was when their father ran away. I struggled with them all by myself. “But now, they are announcing my son on television. I don’t understand. They should give me my son. I want government to give me my son. I need my son. My son was 29-year-old and they are twins. I went through a lot for them. I don’t know how to take this issue because my heart is heavy”. ‘My twin brother promised to come home first week of April’ Georgina, the twin sister to the deceased Georgina, could barely talk. She was drenched in grief and drowned in tears. Crying uncontrollably, she said: “I don’t know what to say. He was my twin brother. He was a friend and a father to me. He was like my better half”. Georgina said she spoke to George on January 3. She said in their discussion, George promised to visit home the first week of April. “I refuse to accept that my brother is no more and Iam patiently waiting for him to come back as he promised. “George lived a triangular life, if he was not in church, then he would be in the school where he taught  and if he was not there then he would be at home. George  was a straight forward; he always liked to have things done the right way. “At first when he knew it was Bayelsa, my elder brother asked him to redeploy but he refused and said he would go to wherever government would  send him. People who didn’tt know him called him the singing prophet because he loved to sing a lot and cannot stay without music. “If he was in his room and heard someone singing, he will rush out and make that person his friend. He would wave to people around whenever he was singing; he used to spend time with children. There is even a child that always come around and now he cannot come around again. “You can ask anybody about George, they may not know his name but if you say the one that sang and walked about, they will tell you they know him. He just loved music; he was a chorister in the church. “The truth is, I am still waiting for him. They should give me my brother. He is not dead though it is taking long but I will wait because he told me he will come first week of April. So, I will still wait; I don’t care what they are saying. “My brother cannot go just like that. He wanted to serve this country  and said there was nothing anybody would say to him to change his mind. He believed whatever happened was for a reason and would accept it like that and he said since he was posted to Bayelsa,then God wanted him there. “Let me not say much. I’m only waiting. There is still time; first week of April,he will come. I’m still waiting; there is no need for consolation because my brother is coming”, she sobbed. The outrage and worsening insecurity in Yenagoa The killing of the corps members high-lighted the worsening insecurity in Bayelsa, especially Yenagoa, the capital city. Guns are everywhere in Yenagoa and life is gradually becoming cheap in the capital city.  Armed cultists have declared war in Yenagoa, robbing, killing and maiming residents at the slightest provocation. The residents lampooned the police and security agencies for failing in their responsibility to secure lives and properties of the people. They wondered how a small town like Yenagoa with the headquarters of the 16th Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Central Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy, Mobility Command of the Airforce, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the Joint Task Force, Operation Delta Safe (ODS), the police, the DSS and other security outfits could be overrun by cultists. Armed cultists seem to have formed a parallel government administering terror unchallenged. They even attack armed security operatives, kill them and dispossess them of their guns. Even in popular markets, like the Swali Market, cultists operate and kill people in broad daylight at will. Their activities have killed nightlife in Yenagoa. A resident, who identified himself as David, said said he could not control his tears when he saw the lifeless bodies of the corps members and wondered why the insecurity had been allowed to degenerate in the state. He said: “What is Yenagoa turning into? The level of insecurity is very alarming; imagine two youth ‘corpers’ serving in Bayelsa State  shot and killed this night at Swali community by suspected armed robbers! “When I saw the lifeless bodies of these young men at the Federal Medical Centre,Yenagoa, I was totally troubled in my spirit. What will become of their parents who have spent hard- earned resources to send them to school only to lose them while serving their fatherland, the land that doesn’t have faith in the ability of the youths”? Another resident, Fawe, lamented that Yenagoa had become notorious for unpleasant and criminal incidents and blamed political actors for the development. He said: “Those who call the shots live in well guarded environments and go about in bullet proof cars purchased with taxpayers’ money.  Yenagoa is not bigger than Ada George Road in Port Harcourt. It’s the worst thing to lose a child. Now, what will be of the parents of the deceased?” The Commissioner for Youth Development, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, and the Ijaw Youths Council (IYC), Central Zone, condemned the gruesome murder of the corps members. Eradiri and the IYC Chairman, Tare Porri, led a high-powered delegation of Governor Seriake Dickson’s aides on youths to pay a condolence visit to the state Coodinator, NYSC, Bolade Loto in Yenagoa.

The youth commissioner said the governor was devastated by the report of the killings and mandated them to visit the IYC management in the state. Addressing Loto, he said: “As a state, we heard what happened. Our principal, the governor, was very touched and concerned about this ugly incident and we must express our condolence as a state government to the NYSC. “Young people who came to serve their nation don’t deserve to die in the process. For us, we are sorry that such will happen in our environment. It should not happen to the NYSC, not to youths who are serving their fatherland. “But the government is doing everything possible to ensure that the culprits are brought to book. It is unfortunate that the society has gone this bad. We condemn what happened and we are doing our best to engage young people. “There is no reason why a young person will take another person’s life. Youth corps members are priceless assets to every nation. Our condolences go to their families and we will work very hard to ensure it doesn’t happen again”. Porri said it was unfortunate that such dastardly acts were happening in Yenagoa despite the presence of many security outfits. He accused the security agencies of conspiracy and urged them to step up their game and guarantee security in the state. He said: “It was a terrible and shocking incident that happened to us as Ijaw people. We are not known for things like this. It is unfortunate that young people who were serving our fatherland could be killed in such manner. “But my concern is that this sincerely calls for sober reflection. We have many security outfits in the state. We have the Nigerian Army 16th Brigade of the Nigerian Army; Central Naval Command of the Nigerian Navy; Mobility Command of the Airforce; Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC); the Joint Task Force; Operation Delta Safe (ODS); the police; the DSS and other security outfits and this kind of incident is happening. “The Bayelsa State government is doing its best but these other security agen

cies should do their best. I don’t know what is happening, whether it is conspiracy. I call on the security outfits to step up their game. It is life that we are talking about. We are worried and concerned”. Also, a former governor of the state, Chief Timipre Sylva, condemned the killing of the corps members and derided the the government for failing to secure Bayelsa. He said: “It is a very sad thing that some NYSC members were killed in their own lodge. They were not even outside. They were in their own lodge when two of them were killed. “My heart goes to the families of these corps members. They were very innocent people serving the nation but they are no more with us not because of their fault but because the government could not protect them”. Also the Sagbama branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) condemned the brutal murder. A statement by its Chairman, Dise Sheila Ogbise, said the unwarranted murder of two was the latest in a spate of incessant violence, killings and criminal activities in the state. She said: “The insecurity in Bayelsa is alarming and a concern to peace and development in the state.” Corps members’ concern over their safety In fact, corps members are worried over their safety. Barring any change in plans, the youth corps members will be on the streets to protest the death of their colleagues and constant attacks on them by hoodlums in the state. A corps member, who identified herself as Blessing, said they were no longer safe in Bayelsa. She complained that they were targets of attacks by cultists, who rob them of their smart phones and other valuables. Blessing said most of their lodges had been attacked by hoodlums and called on security agencies to provide adequate security for them. Also another corps member, Joy, described the killing of her colleagues as very unfortunate. She lamented the constant attacks on corps members’ lodges by criminals and appealed to the government and security

agencies to stop the insecurity in Bayelsa.  “I feel very bad. I don’t know them but then, I can imagine how their families feel. We came out to do service to the nation and then they were killed. The government and security agencies are supposed to ensure our safety”, she said. The state Coordinator, NYSC, Boladei Loto,  expressed disappointment at the incessant attacks of corps members in the state, saying it had become worrisome. “These hoodlums have been attacking corps members serially. The Director-General has had cause to write to the state governor and the matter reduced. There is no day we don’t record cases of attack against corps members”, he said. Loto described the incident as very heart-breaking, pathetic and very shameful, charging the police to thoroughly investigate the killing and bring the perpetrators to justice. She said the NYSC had already contacted the families of the deceased persons, adding that Akpos Honest, the brother of one of the deceased, George Onokpoma, had been crying uncontrollably. Loto said the motive behind the killing was still unknown since the murderers left the scene of the incident without stealing any valuable. Narrating how the incident happened, she said: “When I was notified of this incident at the middle of the night on Wednesday, I immediately sent messages to the DG of NYSC, the Deputy Governor and the SSG. “They all replied me to express their shock for this dastardly act. Up till now, I am still in shock. I keep asking myself, why? What could have happened because reports have it that they took nothing from them. Since then, we have been in constant touch with the DG of NYSC and with the state government. “That very morning, I visited the surviving corps member in the hospital. I ensured the hospital quickly and promptly gave the corps member the needed attention. The two families that lost their children had been contacted. They are still in shock, wondering what their children could have done. They are still weeping”. The State Commissioner of Police, Mr. Olusholla David, visited the State Secretariat of NYSC and met with Lotto. David expressed shock over the incident and assured the NYSC of a rejigged security strategy to ensure the safety of serving corps members in the state. The police boss promised to brief Governor Seriake Dickson on the incident, adding that the perpetrators would be found and brought to justice. He said: “There is nobody that will hear the incident that will not be shocked. The corps members in the state may be scared but please assure them that there will be improved security under my watch”, he said.