A few years ago, I went shopping for my kids at Ikeja. As I was passing under the bridge by Ipodo, I saw traders quickly scooping up their wares and scampering to safety.
When I saw pedestrians like me hurrying along the road and looking back furtively, I hastened my steps, not sure of what was going on because in Lagos, you run before asking others why they are running. When I got clear of where the commotion was, I asked traders who had also run and were looking to see if peace had returned to the location they scampered from.
“Why are we running?” I asked..(that popular song hadn’t been made then)
The trader replied, “It’s the area boys, they are dividing what they stole, one side said the others did not declare everything they stole…so they are fighting!”
Dear Lord!
Thieves also steal from among themselves!
This world is badddd, there’s no respect for professional colleagues!
You hear of yahoo yahoo boys scamming themselves; Hushpuppi scammed Loudpuppi…ermm, I mean Invictus Obi.
You hear of robbers not trusting one another and not declaring items stolen from a joint raid. This is annoying!
Anyway, so I was annoyed again when I read of two friends who both died after what some think may have been money ritual gone wrong between friends.
Two young men in Edo State said to be friends, died under mysterious circumstances. The two, one named Ebafor, 25 years old, the other Alex, 36 both died on the same day, in the same hospital, displaying similar symptoms!
It was reported in Punch that Ebafor while drinking with his aunty suddenly began to shout, “Ah, see money, plenty money! Alex you are a bad friend, a bad friend.” Afterwards, his erratic behaviour led people around him to try to calm him down instead, he began to vomit blood at which point he was rushed to the hospital, even so, at the hospital, he kept calling Alex and accusing him of being a bad person.
Alex, his friend had also begun to misbehave; he had called his wife to tell her not to return home after the day’s sales at the market. Women are not usually known to listen to their husbands, so she came home wanting to know why her husband asked her not to come home. She came home and found him talking jargons and writhing on the floor. She called for help and he was rushed to the hospital, incidentally, the same hospital his friend had earlier been admitted. Both men were reported to have behaved in similar manner and before anyone could ask, “Hu you ki for rishua?”
They were both dead!
Charms were reportedly discovered in the rooms of both men after they passed. This kind of scenario is the stuff of Nollywood.
Two friends die same day under mysterious circumstances; one calling out the other; both chanting incantations and vomiting blood. What is immediately obvious is that one had betrayed the other and perhaps the other had also taken precautions…just in case his friend had plans of betraying him as well, these countered actions backfired against them. Orrr, maybe the person they used for the ritual has a strong head…who knows?
Anyway, what we know for a fact is there’s truly no honour among thieves…or ritualist buddies for that matter.
Na wah o!