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Jungle Justice
By Felix | January 30, 2008
Let me see if I can bring us back to the concluding parts of at least one of my experiences as the suspense is already killing some of us… (lol) . I strongly recommend you read “Bang Bang” and “Jack Robinson” to understand this post in full.
“Nobody move or else…” shouted the police man, the loud Bang! Bang! was 2 shots from the police AK47 rifle , before he finished we were up and running into the thick swampy forest just by the plantation, where we camped for rest from the exhaustion and frustration of not finding our targets that morning. Some of us who had gained a little distance and balance had retaliated with shots into the air too. This was to stop them from coming after us and to get others into a good distance too.
We had no idea how thick and dangerous the forest we ran into was, after running for a while and being sure that the police men didn’t follow up on us, we had to look for our way out. From different routes, we someone how split into small groups of 4’s and 5’s. After 4hrs of fruitlessly looking for a way out, my group and I realized that we were lost, by this time the pangs of fear, fatigue, and the inevitable hunger made us come to rest and retrace our path.
Scared we might not find our way back before night fall, which would have been a major problem. We were hearing sounds of animals we couldn’t put names to as we could not see them. The grounds were also wet as it was a swampy area, some part of the swamp, swallowed our legs to knee level, so sleeping here was definitely out of question…
Yes, I have slept in the bush before for a period of about 2weeks, but I guess that will be a story for another day… We decided to recheck our sense of direction, and then questions popped up, how did we get here? Which directions did we take, was it left or right? At what junction did we go where? As this question kept going on to and fro with no reasonable answers, … I kept quiet for a while and weighed my position from that morning when I woke up till the moment where I was.
Lost and without direction, the only logical thing to do then was … Pray
Pray because I was lost, pray because I felt helpless, pray because I needed direction, pray because I was scared and I wanted to be home, in the comfort of my family, where life had a meaning, not in this jungle where in every minute lay uncertainty… so I said a silent prayer asking God to get me home, promising that immediately he gets me out of the jungle, I was heading back for Lagos.
I missed home… Terribly.
My friends suddenly realized I was quiet and they asked me what was wrong, I got up from my squatting position and somehow felt strong and more determined to get home and I told them to follow me, I didn’t know where I was going, but someone needed to take the lead and give others hope at that point.
As they followed me a few more minutes unsure of the directions, we started hearing something from the distance … bang! Bang ! bang! … Now this wasn’t a gone shot bang, it was a more subtle, consistent knocking of something in the distance, this was one of the happiest sounds I had heard all my life, because I knew civilization was close by… we stopped in our tracks and listened to the sweet music of what sounded like a hammer hitting something consistently and we danced for joy as we knew for sure we were near the end of our journey through the thickest forest I have ever seen or been through in my life, now let me give you a picture of how this forest looked like, so you can appreciate what we went through, the tress were almost as tall as sky scrapers, as they blotted out the sun… the whole place was dark except for few rays of light from the sun that pieced through tiny holes where the leaves of the trees didn’t cover, the earth, was soft, wet and sinking under our feet, we heard different noises and sounds and couldn’t make out which was a bird or an animal and to make matters worse, whenever a cloud pass under the sun, it was pitch black and we had to wait for the sun to give us back its few light rays before forging on … pitch black…
Pitch black, that’s exactly what I saw that night at the beach when from behind… One of the “area boys” wiped me clean at the back of my head with a bottle, for a few seconds I was blacked out… , staggered back into consciousness and received thorough maiming and when a crowd was gathering, the area boys started chanting ole ole … (meaning thief thief) and then we were dragged to the beach security and submitted as armed robbers… When I think about it now, I confirm to myself that this was really The Lowest Point Of My Life. I was paraded as a common criminal and I didn’t have a right to defend myself… no way, not with an irate crowd in Lagos.
On being submitted at the security post at the beach, I came face to face with one of my near death experiences ( in the near future I’ll write a post on my near death experiences). We were told to lie down 5 of us out of the 8, here we received more brushing … by this time, I felt norm, nothing mattered anymore, as I had gone beyond feeling pains, until I heard someone saying… “kosi ekpo kosi ekpo” in Yoruba language this means “no fuel no fuel” … Yes you heard me right, fuel… petrol or gas whatever you know it as, we were being arraigned to be burnt by Lagos jungle justice court…
For the benefit of those that are not from this part of the world, In Lagos Nigeria, if a thief is caught, he faced jungle justice, which means you will be beaten to a pulp and burnt to death. That’s how cruel the society here can be…
I knew that if I remained in that position we were going to die! So I mustered all the courage and strength in me and got up from the lying down position, now this infuriated the crowd and one of the security men, huge guy about 6ft plus with a two by four, we stood face to face, and he told me to go back down , I looked him straight in the eye and was trying to tell him we were not armed robbers, at this point he was already angry I wasn’t listening to him, when he told me to go back down. So he started hitting me with the two by four stick aiming for my face, but I had both my arms by my face, so he concentrated on the hand and kept hitting same spot on my left arm, the pain was so excruciating at first, that I nearly went back down, but I knew if lay back down, it might be our end, so it was either I take the pain and try to convince this guy or death when they got to find the fuel.
With all this and my whole life flashing across my eyes, knowing that the decision I take at this point could determine my/our fate, in the euphoria of this realization, I suddenly felt norm, I didn’t feel the pain anymore, it didn’t matter if he was hitting me or not, the only thing that mattered was getting this one guy to believe me and then maybe the rest will see reasons to reason with us or at least here our part of the story…
So I stood straight again and tried to retain the eye contact with him, for a brief second, I think the guy saw this or something touched him and he suddenly stopped hitting me, pulled me close to him and I mustered with what was left of my voice again… we- are- not- armed robbers…
Topics: my story |
January 30th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Mr felix
Don’t you think this suspense is becoming rather unbearable to your readers? One jumps into your site like a hungry lion ,to devour his prey,only to watch the prey run away.
Your good.
January 30th, 2008 at 11:39 am
street is hard!!dey say..but what makes it harder is d way we choose our path,@ d end of our run!!these r d memories dat stay with us till d end of time.
lookin back today,dear 1..d very path u took then,was 4 a reason!though seeds of anger,pain,violence n ambition were planted along d way,but 2day dis seeds ve become fruits of joy,laughter,success n ve made u a better MAN!!
@FELIX!!I SMILE..PEACE N A FIST…
January 30th, 2008 at 11:46 am
THESE FRUITS VE MADE U A BETTER N STRONGER MAN!! TODAY!!MUCH MORE THAN U HOPED 4!!
KIP D CAMPFIRE BURNING!!
N ALWAYS BELIEVE N DO!!
January 30th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Felixo!
Now, that really looked and felt like a movie. I’m waiting patiently for the other parts.
Believe me, your story is the tool you have to affect lives.
Stay connected!
January 30th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
OMG Felix i had no idea what life is like over there, this part of your life has brought me to tears. You have been a great part of my life for over 3 yrs now and i thank God u survived all u have to tell your story. Thank you for also teaching me what life is like in Africa for i had no idea. I praise God for never leaving your side. I’d also like to say here in the states when one hears gun shots we dont run we stop in our tracks for fear of being shot, u totally amaze me. hagd sweets.. xxx
January 30th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
This story sounds like the movie,
when re we having, Felix (Lost) part 3.
Ha!ha!!Ha!!!.
January 30th, 2008 at 2:29 pm
This is super story….this is super story.
I still reading…
1 quick question…if you could turn the hand of time what would you have done better?
Like I said “I am still reading”
January 30th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
I just give God all the praises for your life today.Love you.
January 30th, 2008 at 5:11 pm
felix, every problem is an opportunity to trust God and the way you know you’ve been given life, hope, and a future is when you start giving those away to everyone else, which is what ur doing.
one thing am sure of is that God can not give us what we can not handle, u, being
alive and telling d story, is for a purpose.
January 31st, 2008 at 12:36 am
I cant shout!! Determination, Daring, Fight, Believe.
Just a little faith and this too shall surely pass.
Ride on bro.
January 31st, 2008 at 11:27 am
bros, bros, bros (ascending volume) if i hold my breathe any longer, i might just rollover(yea,as in to the great beyond) release the remaining part of the story biko
you are really good with holding people’s attention, i give it to you
this is one story i dont want to experience
January 31st, 2008 at 11:33 am
oops, i meant breath
February 1st, 2008 at 2:22 pm
Ok Felix. Next stop, publishers!!! And you thought you couldn’t write?! You had me glued. Well done dear but the focus is still…?
February 1st, 2008 at 7:43 pm
I have gone through your story.Its really an encouragement to the youths of today.Keep it up
February 10th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I respect you. Reading this post is…. don’t even know the word to use but are you crazy!!! God must really have serious use for your life, ‘cos pple in Nigeria have been burnt for less crimes i.e stealing maggi cube from the market.
I think you should write a book. You can be sure of at least one buyer…ME. You have me hooked.
Keep it up.
April 8th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
[...] My mind flashed back to the that day in the jungles (to understand this post you might need to read jungle justice) of Calabar (south eastern Nigeria) when I got lost with my friends, while running from the police, [...]