Posted by From PAUL ORUDE, Jos on
Yinka Odebisi, a father of five had no inkling of the danger that lay ahead. As he went home to see his family at Rikkos in Jos Metropolis that fateful Friday of November 28, 2008 at about 7 pm, he ran into rioters brandishing dangerous weapons such as knives, sticks and bottles.
Yinka Odebisi, a father of five had no inkling of the danger that lay ahead. As he went home to see his family at Rikkos in Jos Metropolis that fateful Friday of November 28, 2008 at about 7 pm, he ran into rioters brandishing dangerous weapons such as knives, sticks and bottles.
Yinka, a teacher at Baptist Secondary School in Yashi, tried to beat a retreat and escape. But his efforts did not pay off as the angry rioters caught up with him. They beat him mercilessly. His entire plea for mercy fell on deaf ears. After giving him a through beating, they placed a tyre around his neck, and set him ablaze.
The incident happened a stone throw from his house.
As if the family was doomed for disaster that day, his younger brother, Dimeji Odebisi ran into another group of rioters at about that period. Dimeji, whose wife was nursing a two-month-old baby was clubbed severally on his head, shoulders as he pleaded for his life to be spared. Soon, they set him on fire.
'It was a terrible experience,' Mrs Adegbite, elder sister of the deceased told Daily Sun at the NDLEA headquarters in Jos where she and her eight children and husband, Gabriel had taken shelter.
Mrs Adegbite lamented the deaths of her brothers wondering who would take care of the children they left behind.
'Their wives and children could not come here because of the shock. A good Samaritan has offered them shelter.'
She told Daily Sun that she and her family escaped by the whiskers while their house and two cars belonging to her husband were completely razed down.
'We only escaped with the clothes you see us wearing now,' she said
'When the rioters came to our house, we had locked the gate and the front door. They forced their way in and started shouting, 'Where is Gabriel? Find him and kill him.' We were scared to death. We thought the end had come for us. My husband brought out a digger and started breaking the other side of the window and that was how we escaped.'
Mrs Adegbite and her eight children had been staying at the NDLEA camp where she said about 2000 people escaped to for fear of being killed.
'My son, it is terrible. We have been sleeping in the place since then. Right now, we are waiting to be given food. We lost everything, oh my brothers, why did they have to kill them?' she broke down into tears.
Mrs Adegbite and many of the displaced persons are still living in fear as soldiers patrol the streets of Jos.