By Hope O’Rukevbe Eghagha
As the world marked International Women’s Day last week, news of a missing 22-year-old Ms. Bamise Ayanwale swept through social media, with a video of another woman Caroline Oni wailing frantically in front and around a BRT bus belonging to the Lagos State government. This wailing brought a personal dimension to Bamise’s plight and further deepened the tragic image of loss, frustration, and desperation.
Caroline Oni, Bamise’s madam and adopted mother wailed loudly that her ward had boarded Bus 240257 that fateful night from Chevron Bus stop in Lekki heading for Oshodi and alerted the family that she was in danger. Apparently, she was right. She could not be reached on phone shortly after. A week later, her body was found in a morgue having been deposited there by the Police. The Police reported that her body had been found on Carter Bridge a week after her disappearance. It beats the imagination for a 21st Century man to believe that the harvested body parts of a human being can fetch them wealth and power!
This
is a now familiar sad story in Lagos. There have been reports of commuters who
went missing in Lagos, stories about passengers who were forcefully taken into
the bush in the Lekki axis and saved only by divine intervention from the hands
of ritual killers. The Bamise story is familiar therefore, yet it is shocking
beyond words how a young lady saw her death coming, alerted her family and
nothing could stop the barbaric hands of a demented ritualist from snuffing out
her life. Her death is another indication of how the State continues to fail
Nigerians and the impunity with which the state reacts. For some state
officials, this is yet another death. Nothing special. They seem to say that in
a matter of weeks the tension would wear off, and we would move on to other
disasters, forgetting poor Bamise in the cold grace that the barbarity of
scoundrels sent her to in the prime of her life.
There are questions crying to be asked and answered. How many
others have lost their lives in such circumstances in Lagos and around the
country? What were Bamise’s thoughts as she lay dying? The dread. The struggle,
the terror. Then death! If BRT is unsafe, what is the fate of passengers who
commute in those ‘danfo’ buses within the metropolis? How many culprits have
been arrested and prosecuted? How many more will die sadly like Bamise? Why has
Lagos State officials behaved as if the image of the transport company is more
important than the life of a citizen? Why was the driver allowed to address the
press like a free staff of BRT when he had to be arrested by the DSS and
brought to Lagos from his hideout? Why are there conflicting reports about the
state of her body from the Police and her family members?
Fortunately,
Bamise left enough traces for her murderers to be caught. She was smart enough
to record the Bus number and communicate the same to her family. If only she
had let the scoundrel driver know that she had communicated his details to
family members, perhaps they would have let her go. If you interview commuters
in Lagos you would hear stories. There was a lady who worked in a television
station in Ikeja. That early morning, she boarded a danfo, between Maryland and
Ketu, she was raped inside the bus and thrown off the moving vehicle. There was
yet another who was taken to a forest in the Lekki area. According to her, the
place was a thriving market for body parts. She was spared by the ritualists
because she was in her monthly flow. A state that takes the security of life
and property seriously should have burst the ring of ritualists in Lagos.
Bamise must get justice. Her killers must be brought to book to
the satisfaction of the citizens of Lagos. I suspect that the BRT driver had
been in the dirty business for long. The impunity stinks. Lagos state
government must redeem itself. Too many official lies emanate from the state
government. The way LASG handled the anti-SARS demonstrations in 2020 in which
lives were lost is a clear demonstration of their capacity to tell barefaced
lies. The investigative panels concluded that lives were lost yet the official
position was that soldiers did not fire at protesters at the Lekki toll gate.
They even had the temerity to challenge footage of the shooting provided by
CNN! The Dowen College incident is yet another stain in official narratives
from Lagos. The credibility gap is widening by the day.
It is
high time the government equipped the state roads and crannies with CCTV
cameras. Every modern city takes security seriously and the surest way of
monitoring activities on the streets and communities is the close circuit
cameras which quietly record incidents. Lagos State ought to have its police
force. The foolishness of the federal system that we operate makes common sense
a rarity in governance.
The point must be repeated that the killers of Bamise must be
prosecuted. Justice must not only be done, but it must also be seen to be done,
especially considering the circumstances of Bamise’s death. There is a feeling
right now that someone or some forces are trying to change the narrative to
create the impression that Lagos is safe for commuters. The truth is that Lagos
is not safe. We move about and live by Providence, not because of the security
measures which the state has put in place! Also, there ought to be a strong
security action against the ring of ritualists in the country. Advocacy is
needed too.
Finally, Bamise cried for help before she died. In death, the only
thing the State government can do is to unravel the circumstances of her death
and send a strong message to others that they will ultimately be caught by the
long arm of the law! #JUSTICE FOR BAMISE#
* Eghagha, a professor of English, is a commentator on
public issues
No comments:
Post a Comment