A CHAPTER FROM THE STORY OF MY LIFE Part 6: In the morning of 28th September, 2007, around 6:00am loud voices visited Enclosure in the Old Block section of Danfodio Hall where I was staying, to wake us up door-by-boor. After observing the universal rituals of the morning, I made my way to Social Centre, where I found a large assembly of students. Thereafter, the crowd headed for the university’s main gate. Apparently, leaders of the protest that morning had decided they wanted to block the expressway outside the school, so I tagged along. At the Main Gate, Katuka Humble addressed the crowd. He stood on the platform which holds the schools logo. It was at that point that a deployment of armed military men arrived, announcing their presence with sporadic shots in the air. On hearing the shots, students who minutes ago looked like they could face a gunship unarmed, ran helter-skelter, scampering for cover and running for dear life. Seeing that, I began shouting at the top of my voice calling them to return. I did that for an extended period of time until they finally got back. I told them to take a stand and maintain a position of power, so the soldiers would be forced to request for audience with us. That way, we would not be beaten, harassed, or brutalized while running back into the campus with our tails between our legs. Just as I anticipated, the shooting stopped and few of the soldiers advanced toward us with their riffles holstered and hanged to their backs. Those of us who were at the frontlines met with them halfway. We responded to their demand for explanation into what was happening, and they promised to keep their distance provided we proceeded without any incidences of violence. Within an hour of the blockade, there was massive gridlock on both sides of the divide. When the news crew from NTA arrived, we sought permission from the soldiers to take them into the school so they could cover what was going on. We had to seek their consent because the journalists were on their end of the blockade. Ejehson Elaigwu Mark and Benjamin Dzer responded to questions from the newsmen and the interview they granted was later shown on national television that night. Having ushered the journalists into the school, we took them to Suleiman hostel and ensured they had the state of our bathrooms and toilets on video, so the world would see how unhygienic they were. While still in Suleiman Hall, we had gunshots coming from the Main Gate. Apparently, soldiers wanted to open up the roads so motorists could freely move, but that attempt was resisted by students, so the shooting began. At the sound of the shots, Benjamin Dzer was at hand at the gate to see what went down. Thanks to him, a student who was shot by the soldiers was saved. He took the student who was already losing blood into the campus and met us in front of Queen Amina Hall. A car was mobilized and they rushed to a popular private hospital in Samaru. When Benzino as we popularly called Benjamin Dzer told me they needed money at the hospital, I remember pulling my shirt and using it to collect freewill donations to safe our colleague. Benzino was truly brave that day and collaborating with him to help that boy was the most important thing I did in that struggle, having withdrawn from it due to the violent, unstructured, and disorganised path it took. On that day, my concern was the safety of my colleagues and I was prepared to do whatever was necessary to ensure no harm came to them. It was really an eventful day punctuated by chaos and pockets of violence here and there, but by the time I saw a regiment of students coming from the direction of Prof. Adawa’s house (Prof. Adawa was Dean of Students Affairs), wielding the enlargement of his wedding picture, I knew they had gone too far. Till date, I don’t know what happened at the Vice Chancellor’s residence or at Prof. Adawa’s house. Whatever I know, I only heard. Later that day, management announced the closure of the school. We were given a period of time to leave after which anyone found within the university would be ejected by force. ...to be continued.
Posted on: Tue, 01 Jul 2014 04:47:20 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015