See, I didn’t want to tell my mother what happened to me.
I didn’t even know how I to go and tell her that: ‘Mama, one pastor over there at Mile 2, did something to me and I can’t sit down well.’
Mama would have beaten me tire. My mother is a tough woman, she is a no nonsense woman. She will first slap me and I will see stars, then she would not give me food. That’s my mother for you. So I couldn’t tell her.
I have a very good friend, Ikenna, he too told me pastor did the same thing to him but both of us were afraid to tell anybody because Pastor gave us money. He gave us N2,000!
Plenty money.
Okay let me start from the beginning?
I don’t know where the beginning is. I just know that me and Ikenna my friend both of us are 13 years old but we don’t go to school. We are boys with Ikenna’s big uncle at Alaba. We always run after customers to call them to come and buy market from our Oga.
That was how we met pastor.
It was me who saw him first, the day he came to buy electronics at our shop. Ikenna and me, we grabbed his hand when we saw him from very far distance. We can easily know who wants to buy something. We just look at them as their eyes are going here and there, looking at everything but they are not seeing anything. We know they are looking for something and we will help them find that thing they want. That is our job as boys.
And many times, we can know who can spend. Yes, we can see it in the way they behave, the way they talk, the way they look around. No, you can’t know who will spend just by their clothes, clothes can deceive human beings. Me and Ikenna are sharp boys, we know how to bring better customers to our ogas’ shop, we are like Aki and Pawpaw. Yes, we are like that.
So, when we saw pastor that very first time, we went and dragged him to our shop. My Oga has a big shop full of electronic things. We have another one at Balogun for Lagos island.
That day, we did not even know that he was a Pastor, we just saw him afar, dragged him to our shop and he bought big market that day. He bought Microphone, and korg, you know that big black speaker that they use in churches to make the sound of the microphone come out well and make the music sound gbingbin?
Yes, he bought that one too. He then bought one big korg piano. He spent money that day. That is how we became his friends, me and Ikenna helped him to carry the things he bought to his car and he dashed us N2,000! He told us we can come to his church that he will give us more money.
That is how Ikenna and me begin to go to Pastor church. Then we also started to go to his house to help him clean the house. Sometimes we sweep and wash clothes and he always gave us food. That is why we like to go there.
But one day, only me was able to go there. Ikenna was sick and he did not come with me, I think he had malaria that time. Ikenna was even begging me to let him come because he knows what we enjoy for pastor’s hand but his mother told him to stay at home that Sunday. Me I went alone.
It was after I finished washing clothes, spreading them, making garri for myself and eating it when pastor called me that I should come to the bedroom.
It is not that I have never been to pastor bedroom before, it is just that I have never for once in my life lie down on the bed even when pastor is not there. Me I did not think anything bad, I was just thinking, ha, this man of God is a good man, the bed was soft, if you lie on it you will sleep and go to heaven.
Then pastor told me: “JJ, remove your clothes.”
Me, I thought that maybe because my clothes were dirty that is why Pastor said I should remove, so I removed them but I was ashamed because I did not have underwear and my singlet was dirty, very dirty, in fact.
Anyway, pastor asked me to remove my shorts and lie down, by that time, sef, he sef removed his clothes and remaining his boxers. By this time I was afraid, I was afraid something bad will happen to me but I could not run. I was just afraid.
Then, pastor rub something for my anus, the place I use to shit, he rubbed oil there and told me I should turn. By this time, I was crying. I was not even saying please sir, I was just crying because pastor was not pastor again. His face changed. He was like another person entirely.
Pastor put his hand in my anus, then he used his thing to touch me there. He told me I should not shout that if I do shout, he will say I came to steal in his house. Aunty, I did not shout when I lie for bed but I was just crying inside even when he put his something in my anus. I was just crying inside me. He did it again but I don’t know how long, I know I was seeing blood on the bedsheet. Then he tell me say, go bathroom and baff and go home.
Ok when I finished the bath, I quickly wore my clothes and pastor gave me N2,000 for myself alone. I was happy that at least I have money to take home, so I ran to our house. I did not tell mama, because she would beat me and not let me eat at home.
I did not tell Ikenna too because I did not even know how to tell him. I did not know what I would say. I was just feeling pain and buying robb to put there and drinking para to kill the pain.
On Sunday when Ikenna said we should go and see pastor. I said no. In my mind I did not even know Pastor will do that thing he did to me to Ikenna, me I just thought maybe it is only me he will do it to. So, I did not tell Ikenna to be careful.
The following day, at the shop, before our Oga came, me and Ikenna were just talking and I saw he was not sitting well, like he was suffering some pains, just like I was suffering aftet Pastor did that thing to me. I looked at Ikenna and he just began to cry and he told me say see what pastor has done to me, see, he even gave me N2000. So me, too, I said, ha, pastor did the same thing to me. Ikenna said, so how did I do it? I told him that I use to buy robb to put in the place that the pain is not much again.
It was after that that Ikenna mother came to our house, to ask my mother if I told her anything about what pastor did.
It means Ikenna told his mother everything. So me too, I told my mother when she called me. In fact the reason I told her was because she was crying and swearing that God will punish pastor so I knew that ok, she is not angry with me, she will not beat me because I went to pastor’s house.
So that night, we went to Police station with some neighbours. The police said we must take them to the place but when we got to Pastor’s house, the man had vanished. Just like that. So the police told mama say we will be coming to see them following day.
The pastor did not go back to his house, maybe because he knew police were coming to catch him. Me, I don’t know what happened after that, only that mama came to the house one day to say pastor was in police net, she said police went to raid his house and they found him hiding in the ceiling so they brought him down and took him to prison.
Mama also said not only me and Ikenna suffer from pastor hand but two other boys, too. They too have their anus in pieces.
That is what happened to me and Ikenna. Thank you, ma.
(Series written and edited by Peju Akande and based on true stories)