Lagos — Strange claims of killer GSM phone numbers is causing panic among subscribers in Lagos, Yemi Akinsuyi reports

It remains a misery how it all began. The police have tried to dismiss it as hog wash, saying they have received no report so far of any victim.

So is one of the GSM network operators, V Mobile, but the claims persist, spreading all over and causing so much anxiety among GSM mobile phone subscribers. The situation is not being helped by some churches, who have repeatedly warned their followers on the consequencies of answering calls of the purported 'satanic' numbers' or even being called on the numbers.

As the claim goes, receiving a call from any of the numbers results in the receiver vomiting blood to death.

Across the city are claims of many, who have fallen victims, but no one has been able to say exactly where it has happened or specifically identify any victim.

It all began a few weeks back. Since then, subscribers now daily receive such text messages as: "Do not answer a call from or phone any of these numbers: 111123999 and 08023119999. Reject such call immediately. It is devilish and satanic. Please pass this message to your loved ones".

Some even said they have got seven of such 'satanic' numbers, which they have stored in their sets for quick recogniton in case they were called with them.

Although, there were several stories, being peddled around about these phone numbers. The one that is close to being believed is that of a man in Ajegunle, who was said to have dried up and died immediately after receiving a call from a caller that called him on one of the phone lines.

This is generally ascribed to Mr. Segun Adisa in his programme, Labe Orun on Murhi International Television (M-ITV) last Sunday while warning viewers on the effect of receiving such calls.

Adisa said those, who do not believe the existence of the numbers, were at the risk of dying soonest.

He called on all Nigerians to beware of such phone numbers, charging his viewers in Yoruba: "But If it is important that you have to receive all your calls, you have to allow the caller to speak first before replying them. Once this is done, you are free from their trap. But if you first say hello, you are gone for it.

"I pity those, who do not believe that there are phone numbers that could kill instantly. I cannot say much about the evil now, but there is evil hanging on those that do not believe and see it as mere fabrication. Many have gone through these phone numbers, but we that are alive should be careful".

But even before his wide assertion, the fairy tale, which has long spread across the city like wide fire, had left many subscribers in anxiety .

Benson Adausi, a businessman in Ikeja, who has an Emtel line at home, and go about with lines of all other net works, operating, in the country, said he could easily detect 'satanic' phone lines, but was afraid for his children, who were below the age of six years, who were use to answering calls on his Emtel phone once it rings..

" I have decided now disconnect the line, I don't want any of my children to die mysteriously. And I have warned my wife against receiving unregistered phone numbers, nobody can say which one is mysterious or not. I have to take precaution. Prevention, they say, is better than cure", he said.

Strictly adhering to Adisa's warning is Mr. Ayo Adelakun, an advert executive with a prominent company in Lagos.

He said he has made up his mind not to receive just any call and if he has to do that, the caller has to speak up first.

Asked why he has resolved on that, Adelakun claimed his elder brother was at a function recently in Lagos, where a middle aged woman vomited blood as soon as she picked up her telephone set and that after stretching out, she gave up the ghost right there at the ceremony.

"This has made me to believe that all these ritual killers are at it again. You know they keep devising new methods of doing their demonic business. Once they know that we are aware of their ways, they are now using other means to kill people for money making", he said.

Despite the fact that he said he has not seen any victim of this 'killer' numbers or witness anywhere, where it happened, Adelakun said he would rather take precaution before any calamity befalls him.

If that was not enough to cause a scare in people, the claim of a pastor of the Oshodi, a Lagos suburb branch of the famous Christ Embassy Church, who last Sunday narratted his experience of a satanic call in the city in the open church, certainly did .

Warning members of the branch against receiving strange calls, which, he said, now sniff life out of people, the pastor told the congregation that he was in a gathering, where a woman received a call and started vormiting blood. He said all of them, who were around the scene, were subsequently picked up by the police and taken to Alausa Police Station, where they were made to make statements on all they knew about the incident before they were let off.

That claim contradicts police insistence that they have not recorded any such reported case, dismissing it all as mere fabrication.

"Nobody can come up and say here categorically that he has witnessed such a thing. Not in Lagos here. They are just mere fabrications. You know people have become very gullible. Whatever you tell them is what they believe without taking out time to investigate it.

"There are some people, who have lost so much money in the course of switching off their phone sets because of fear of death. I repeat it again, this is mere fabrication. It is a lie. It can never be justified. We have tried as much as possible to, at least, receive a case, but we have not, because it is a lie.

"I want to appeal to Nigerians in general and Lagosians in particular, to go about their normal businesses without any interruption, fear or any form of disturbance about killer calls or whatever it is called. We are all free to receive all telephone calls that come on our way without any fear of death", Emmanuel Ighodalo, a Superintendent of Police ( SP) and Lagos State Police Command Public Relations Officer (PRO), remarked during the week .

The PRO, who was also on the African Independent Television (AIT) over the matter on Tuesday, similarly dismissed the claims , stating that the police have not got any reported incident of the nature anywhere in Lagos since the phone rumours started spreading.

Some Lagosians were also of the position of Ighodalo, dismissing the claims as mere rumours that were being spread by some unscrupulous elements in the society.

Patrick Oshe of THISDAY Newspaper is one of them. Immediately he started hearing stories of the killer calls, he said he knew that some people were at it again.

He said he called one of the supposed 'killer' numbers and the response he got was shocking.

In his words: "I dialed the 08023119999 line and I immediately asked the voice at the other side who he was. The person replied, who I was, and hung up. I knew there and then that I had just intruded into another man's privacy, which I hate to do anyway. This particular line belonged to one of V Mobile customers and not a ritualist", he noted.

Also, the News Editor, Daily of the same media organisation, Mr Kunle Akogun, called the bluff of the claim, saying that nobody has come up to say that such a thing happened to him, say that he sees it as the handwork of rumour peddlers.

Managing Director of Hepziba Investment Limited, Deaconess Adetoro Jemba, also shared that view. She said sho could only believe what the Lord has said concerning her life not the lie of the devil.

In her words: "How can you believe such a thing my sister. If there is anything like that, you know Nigerians, they would have dropped all their hand sets or even throw them into the Lagoon. I can tell you that at the end of the day, it would just go the way other rumours do. I can belt you that there would never be a reported case of any such thing at any police station in the country.

"I know who I believe, and I know He will never allow anything contrary to His promises concerning my life to happen to me and my family. It is not my portion. I want to believe that those peddling this rumours are just out against V Mobile . This is because virtually all the supposed killer numbers are the networks", she said.

But particularly among the ordinary people, the claim is strong and believed. Some have either now locked up their phones or shouts blood of Jesus before answering any call.