We live in a world where crime has now become the order of the day, some people commit evil deeds without any iota of conscience in them, to think that most of these crimes are committed by people we term as close pals, neighbors even families are not left out of it.
Some will say the hardship of the country pushed them into commiting such heinous crime, I mean, why will you kill or cause pain to a fellow human because you want to survive, or money, thinking about these things always leave a heavy burden in my heart.
Growing up and becoming independent, I've witnessed numerous crimes that left me shaken to the bone, especially during the time I was opportune to work in a mobile phone and accessories outlet, since we had goods that were eye catching especially to the youths, the lazy ones sometimes come in pretence of buying something but have other intentions in mind, I can't count the number of times I've caught them trying to smuggle goods out of the shop, or the time someone bought two expensive phones and paid using fake currency with the help of charms also known as juju according to the locals because I never felt something like that was possible, but it did happen.
One particular crime scene that I can't forget easily happened around the year 2013, I was living off campus with a room mate, the landlord had the boy squatter area rented out to students, while the main building was for himself and two other neighbors who had families. On this faithful night, I had decided to work overnight on an assignment which I needed to submit early the next morning, I and my roommate share a room apartment, we also had a door in between that could link us to our next door neighbor who were females and students too, but we always kept it locked unless on few instances where the gist/gossip was hot or birthday of one of us. My roommate decided to sleep early this particular day while I left her to our next door neighbor so I could make use of her laptop as I hadn't gotten mine yet, it was around 2am, and I was still engrossed with my work, my neighbors had already slept off leaving me to do the work alone, my earpiece in my ear, music banging loud as I love to listen to music while working, it seemed like I heard or felt something hit the wall in-between our rooms as my back was rested on the it, Ada, I called out to my roomie but no response, I decided to check what made the sound using the door demarcating our rooms, only to find the room turned upside down, literally everything in the room was scattered, the tables and chairs knocked down, the bed displaced, and the bags emptied , with the door left open, and my roommate was no where to be found, my heart started beating frantically, I slowly moved to the door, couldn't find her or anyone as everywhere was still covered in darkness, and there was a power outage too, I suddenly raised an alarm, my other student neighbors woke up, we ran to the main building to inform our landlord of the event we just witnessed, and there I found my room mate shaking and crying uncontrollable, she had been banging on the landlords door but no response, we joined, he finally came out, alongside the rest of the neighbors too, she recounted with a trembling voice, how she had gone out to ease herself, since we didn't have a built in toilet, on her way back, 2 hefty men intercepted her with cutlass in their hands and a local gun, then followed her into the room, she was ordered to take off her dress and lie on the bed in hushed tone, or they will kill her, according to her she pleaded with them but they paid deaf ears, from their accent, she could tell they were locals from the neighboring village. One of them
started ransacking the room while the other began pulling off his pant, with a swift motion, she zoomed passed him luckily for her she had a small stature, they were not quick enough to grab her.
We went back to the room with the men, and saw traces of foot print on the wall which was their means of break in and escape, our money for upkeep stolen alongside, they even carted away with our provisions. I was glad my roomie was able to escape, I hugged her tightly as we cried together, I imagined if I was also in the room what would have happened, as I wasn't small in stature neither was I swift.
At the break of the day we reported to the police station nearby, we were asked to write down a statement of the event we witnessed, after which, no other action was taken, a policeman even accused us, saying university girls like dressing indecently, that we attracted the hoodlums, we couldn't live there again in peace, the fear of them coming back lingered in our minds, we decided to squat with any of our course mates staying in the school hostel for the remaining part of the session till we could secure our own space again and definitely not off campus.
This post is in response to the hive learners weekly contest, week 46, edition 3.
Thank you for reading♥️♥️
