Simon Ebegbulem
14 October 2007
Benin city — Mr. Kola Eke is the Edo State correspondent of The First weekly magazine. He escaped death by the whiskers, penultimate Saturday, after gunmen suspected to be hired assassins tricked him out of the premises of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) secretariat to the Ugbowo area of Benin City under the guise that they wanted to place an advertorial in his magazine and shot him at close range.
After shooting him in his left leg, they abandoned him in the pool of blood and celebrated their feat before making their escape through a bush path. Sunday Vanguard met Eke at the private hospital where he was receiving treatment, and he narrated his ordeal, declaring that his survival in the hands of the hoodlums was miraculous. Excerpts:
HOW it happened: A young man came on a Thursday, it all started that day at about 10.00 a.m. Myself and one of my colleagues, Isaac Olamekan, were sitting at the front of the NUJ secretariat when the young man walked to me and said that I should excuse him. I challenged him that he was too small to call me out. When he saw that I was visibly angry, he apologized and said what he wanted was to excuse me for an advert. I said if it was an advert apparently he won't be excusing me out, he should make it public.
Since Isaac was there, I drew his attention to it. Isaac fired at him that he was too small to talk about advert especially when he was saying that it was going to be colour. Isaac tried to ward him off by telling him to go and bring N200,000 - N300,000. But he now said he was not the one directly involved in the matter, that it was his elder brother. I asked him the name of the person, he said one Mr. Imasuen. He said that that man's daughter would be getting married and that it was the marriage that he wanted to advertise. I never smelt a rat.
So he put a call across to the so-called Imasuen who also spoke to me but I refused to give out my name. At the end of the day, he told me that on Friday, he would be out of town to return that same Friday evening but that we could meet on Saturday. He said the N200,000 or N300,000 advert rate was not too much for him to pay because it was his daughter's wedding. After the discussion with the Mr. Imasuen, the boy now said I would give him N20,000 commission. I agreed.
On that Friday I had a call from my uncle, Charles Idahosa, that we had a wedding. One of our brothers who traveled abroad was going to marry in Benin and he wanted me to be there. I left the wedding that evening, came to the NUJ secretariat and rushed down to pick my wife from work because my wife was on night duty. That day I did not return home. I went for night duty and the following morning I went to pick my wife from work. The following morning was Saturday when the man agreed to send his boy down to pay for the advert. After picking up my wife from her place of work and dropping her in the house, she gave me food but I did not finish the food.
I rushed down to the NUJ secretariat and ten minutes later my phone rang; it was the same boy who was to bring the advert money. I asked Walid, one of our colleagues, to help me screen the boy after he came. Walid said there was nothing sinister. So, I now asked him where we were going to collect the advert, he said Uselu by Zenith Bank. But I had premonition that going with my car something may happen; so I decided to drop the car.
We were suggesting on how to move when Friday Obanor of the Observer drove in. I pleaded with him to help carry us down so that we could share the advert commission. But he said there was no fuel in his car. We eventually got a bike and headed to Uselu. We got to the area but the road was very bad. So the bike man started complaining. He said the N150 he charged was too small for the journey. I told the bike man that he should not bother, that we will walk the remaining distance on foot.
But the boy started insulting the bike man and that was when I smelt a rat that this boy must be somebody else. Because, initially, he was very humble and friendly but when we got to the place he changed. When we got to the building, he was taking me, I saw a Volvo car parked inside; he pretended as if he was making a call so that the man placing the advert would come down from the storey building. But as he was pretending to be making the call, two boys came out from no where.
Immediately, one held my left hand, the other held my right hand and said this is the end of me. I thought they were joking and I tried to put up some resistance. But surprisingly, they brought out a locally made barrel and showed it to me.
They warned that they would fire at me if I tried to resist them. So I became very gentle. But they were still dragging me; I pleaded that they should not drag me. The boy that came to pick me at the press centre was the one that first said that I got his sister pregnant and I ran away. I told them that I could not have done that but they said I should keep quiet, that I was an idiot. As they were dragging me, they now shot twice into the air. People in the area started running helter skelter.
Three minutes later, the whole place was silent. We now got to a T-junction where one road led to a bush path. I reasoned that if I followed them to the bush path, they may rain bullets on me. So, I resisted going further. I pleaded with them to do any thing they wanted to do with me. They now ordered me to kneel down, raise up my hand and say my last prayers. Before I knew what was happening, I heard another sound and suddenly there was smoke every where. One now said you are finished. So, I closed one of my eyes and I was watching him. My spirit told me that he was going to shoot me right in my chest. Then I heard a loud noise. I do not know, to be candid, what moved me out of the left side and pushed me to the right where the two other young men were guiding me sort of. And I felt a serious pain on my left leg. They said "let us go, mission accomplished. We have finished the idiot, let us go and collect our balance from papa."
Moments later, one of them came back to see if I was still lying there in the pool of my blood. I just pretended as if I was dead. I knew that it was no longer my stomach. But I was very far away. The next thing I heard was "O boy wetin dey worry you?" I refused to open my eyes, that was another saviour that I had. They now said "dis one don die, let us go." They followed the bush path and ran away. Few seconds later, a young boy looking like an imbecile walked to me and said "O God, I lay my hands on this man that has been shot by these men, please God help him to recover".
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