Ogun Ago. Ago War.

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.

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.

 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.