Before getting into the university, I have been hearing stories about the horrors that go on in ekosodin, but I still opted for staying in that community.
My mom initially said I will have to stay in the school hostel, but I have seen how school hostels are and I knew right from the start that I wouldn't be able to stay in one. I was finally able to convince her to allow me to stay in an off-campus hostel, and I will rent an apartment with my friend so that the cost of rent will reduce.
I finally got my wish and we were able to hunt down a self-contained apartment with the help of another friend who is in his final year in the university. While searching for a hostel, my final year friend started talking about the things that happen in the off-campus hostels, which is a community known as ekosodin.
He told us about the high rate of bullying that's done by cultists (gangsters) in the community. Those cultists are generally called strongmen, and they are the reason why ekosodin is very notorious.
Back in the day, you can't go a week without hearing about one bad news from ekosodin, either someone innocent was brutally killed or there was a battle with another rival gang (which again results in deaths!).
One incident that's very common those days is the killing of those that are about to graduate. Some of those cultists don't execute their target immediately, they rather wait till he is done with the university and then kill him as soon as he finishes writing his final exams.
There was a case I heard, about a boy that stepped on someone's toes when he was in his second year in the university and he didn't apologize, the person he stepped on was a cultist and that one didn't say anything then but after 2 years when the boy was done with his final paper in the university, he was brutally murdered in the street and his body was cut to pieces 😓
My friend kept telling us stories about ekosodin, from innocent people being harassed in broad daylight to rival gang members being murdered and their bodies spread on the street like a commodity for sale. He ended it by advising us to always stay indoors at night and also be very respectful to everyone, coz you won't know who's a cultist just by looking.
At that point I was as white as a ghost after hearing those stories, I suddenly start having chills but it was too late to back out. We rented an apartment in a relatively "good area". On the day we moved in, a friend of mine came to visit and he left at night at about 8pm.
My roommate and I decided to see him off down the street. It was a very dark night so we took a torchlight along and just a few steps away from my hostel, we were blocked by 3 shady individuals.
"Who is that flashing torchlight on our faces?!", One of them thundered. "Sorry boss", I replied with a choked voice. They surrounded us and asked which level we are in the university, my roommate told them we are still in 100 level.
"Oh, you guys are freshers", one of them replied with a wicked smile on his face. Then suddenly my friend who has been quiet all this while suddenly called one of their names and asked if he doesn't recognize him.
They pointed their phone's light on his face and apparently they know him. After exchanging pleasantries, they let us go and told us not to be flashing torchlight at night. When they left, my friend told us that next time when someone asks us which level we are in, we should tell them 300 or 400 level because those cultists usually prey more on 100 level students, who are still freshers and are quite timid.
After that incident, I never step my foot outside at night anymore. If my friend wasn't there that day, all our money or our phones would have been taken from us, and we could have gotten a few slaps as well.
I remember an incident that happened when I was returning from school one day, I decided to take a new route that's different from the usual one I normally take. While on the new route, two boys suddenly called me from the front of a house, and unfortunately, I answered them.
They beckoned me to come closer, and I walked close to them while shivering coz I knew what was about to happen. They told me to give them "small thing" to buy drinks (small thing means some money). I was been reluctant because I had just a few money with me, one of them noticed my reluctance and then he reminded me that my phone is in my front pocket, it will be a shame to lose that.
That statement was the motivation I needed to cough up all the money with me, I gave it to them and they let me go. After that day, I completely avoided that route and never took it again. I have been mostly lucky to escape from the hands of those cultists with just a little money taken from me but most of my neighbors and friends aren't so lucky, as their phones are usually taken from them and they are also beaten up for no reason.
Right now ekosodin is a shadow of itself, incidents of bullying and killings are very rare now and one particular incident changed everything. Want to know what changed everything? I will talk about it in the second part of this article 😉
To be continued...
This article is getting too long so I have to cut it short at this point. I will publish the second part of it tomorrow, that's where I will talk about the incident that occurred that finally made the university's management and the state government intervene heavily in the security of ekosodin.
Thanks for reading 💖💖💖
Monday December 6, 2021
Interesting, this is common in school environments. Actually I didn't had any confront with these people all through my school days but lots of my friends had. These gangsters go with colour and when you're found putting a match to their colour, you've entered their trap. When I was yet to enter school, those my senior cousins used to tell us to behave like a gangster when we eventually enter school to give these Gangstars a stand 🤣🤣