I remember. June 16 in 2005. It was a terribly bad day, a
day that the devil collected water to drink. We were at the department and were
waiting to receive a lecture when we sighted though the window a crowd of
students, there was an unrest. Before we knew it, SUG excos were addressing us
on the podium. Our lecturers had to send us home.
In all, I thank God for preserving our lives through the
mayhem. Someone else will have a different story, I only shared my own
experience.
What happened? A student was reading in a class within the
premises of a primary school at the same time some OPC (Odua People's Congress)
members were having a meeting. I can't remember exactly what transpired between
them and the student, but they started attacking the guy until they killed him.
A riot ensued. Students filed to the king's palace in protest, but the king was
on his people's side and even mobilised them to attack protesting students.
It was a tough battle between students and indigenes.
Indigenes were going from house to house to drag out students to kill. Blood
flowed. That Thursday evening, in my own hall, Bobagunwa, we all gathered together,
confounded and scared stiff. I think we managed to pray. We heard gunshots from
different angles. Later, we concluded we would all escape to the mini campus
since indigenes were slaughtering students from house to house. But our
landlord, Baba Ile Bobagunwa (pronounce it in Ijebu accent), bless his heart,
pleaded with us not to go, that he would not let anyone enter the compound to
attack us. The man was crying and praying. A few of my hall mates still went to
the mini campus, though, but most of us stayed back at home. All along, we were
in Tolulope's and Tosin's room. We afterwards dispersed to our different
rooms.
That night, I closed my room's window. I usually left it
open, but I was not going to take chances. Strangely, I slept peacefully without
a single stir throughout the night and woke up at 7 in the morning I even cooked
concoction and ate. When I stepped out of my room, some of my house folks were
telling me they could neither sleep nor eat. That morning, I called home. It
was funny they hadn't heard the news yet. We were three in my hall from our
house in Abeokuta, our landlord's daughter and niece and myself. They also
called home and their dad came to pick us.
When we were being driven home, we had to take the longer
route. It actually was a route you don't usually take when going from Ago Iwoye
to Abeokuta, but the usual route was besieged by the indigenes and we heard
they were attacking anyone that passed that way. That day, I had an idea of
what a war is like. Come and see students trekking enmasse from Ago Iwoye to
Ijebu Ode. This is something you would never dream of doing on a normal day,
trek from Ago to Ijebu Ode. We saw like four to five students with load on a
motor-bike, not exaggerating, it was very bad. We all had to escape for our
dear lives.
Several students died. Many parents lost their children to
this war, some, all their children. A colleague who was my senior by a year in
Geology was hacked to death. The school was closed for like three months before
we resumed again.
