Armed with cudgels , they surrounded him while shouts of ” Kill the bastard,hang him, cut his third leg “, rent the air . While on his knees, he used his left hand to cover his ”treasure” and waving his right hand begging for mercy as heavy blows rained on him .His voice cracked. Tears flowed freely down his cheeks .When he could not bear the pain any longer he pleaded to the angry mob to kill him at once by shooting him.
Fuming with rage , a young man shaved the suspect’s head with a razor blade. Another man with blood-shot eyes brought out a six- inches nail , fixed it on a long stick, raised it, aimed at his temple and wanted to land it on the clean shaved head of Adio. One man adjusted the rubber tires they put on his neck while two men emptied two gallons of petroleum on his naked body. Adio was shocked when he saw the young woman he used to give money among the angry mob ready to strike a stick of matches on him . ”My end has come! My end has come!!”, he muttered. He closed his eyes, clenched his teeth and screamed ” No!, no!!”. He woke up , sweating profusely and shivering .It was a dream.
Thank God it was a dream, he said, still shaking like a weather -beaten chicken. He looked at the lady, Morountola sleeping by his side , in a pool of her own blood. “Are you still bleeding ?, does it mean the doctor did not do the D & C very well? I am in trouble ” , he shouted . Morountola did not talk or even move at all .He shook her , yet she neither blinked an eyelid nor moved her body.
Adio called his friend on that early Monday morning , and they drove Morountola to a nearby hospital where she struggled to describe for them.
While on a stretcher she looked at Adio and said ”this is the fifth abortion I am doing for you, and this is four months pregnancy .This is bad yet you said you are still studying me to know my character , it is unfair “.
Adio and Morountola had been dating for the past four years while the two lovebirds agreed to finish their University education before they get married. Adio studied Sociology while Morountola studied Business Administration and both finished from two different prestigious Universities in Nigeria. Now they are serving their father’s land as Youth Corpers and the duo are the envy of many .
Adio during his service year in another town met Adunke who was a Banker who was desperately looking for husband and she enticed Adio with money and goodies since she was a Banker . She gave Adio money to abort for Morountola in order not to be disturbed. They orchestrated the plan to dump Morountola for them to get married.
Adio flashed back to the dream he had , he became uncomfortable and nervous . He asked the doctor whether Morountola will survive the abortion as the blood was too much for him to bear . But the doctor assured him of her survival and demanded 250,000 Naira to place her on admission to do a proper evacuation and cleaning of the remnants . Aduke gave Adio the money and that was all.
” Did I not tell you that your boyfriend is wicked ? He never had intention to marry you and you are just fooling yourself “, the doctor told Morountola .
Three days later the doctor phoned and dropped a bombshell on Adio that Morountola had died and he should come and pick up her corpse .
Adio cut the land phone , packed his things and fled to Kano not minding the religious riot Maitasine that was going on there. Adunke later started visiting Adio in Kano ,they wedded , had four beautiful children and were living well.
Adio became a successful businessman and his wife,a banker assisted him with loan facilities from her bank. Life was good .
It was in the night , during the holiday when a public transport ran into a truck. A medical doctor who had just completed his National Youth Service with three other students of same mother died instantly. While other passengers sustained injuries.
Bad news spread like wildfire. These children were from Kano going to Lagos to see their grandmother as their father had lived in Kano for years without bothering to come back home. The driver of the public transport slept off along Abuja / Lokoja road and rammed into a stationary trailer. While some believe it was caused by witches and wizards, some said vampires waited there for their blood and others traced the history of the driver, medical doctor and of Adio’s families’ background.
” Mr. Adio’s three children died in a ghastly auto crash and his wife is in her late 50s already in her menopausal stage .There is no hope she would have a child again except miracle “, a sympathizer told Morountola over the phone. Morountola who heard the news left Ikoyi with her husband for Oshodi and located Adio’s family house .
Face- to- face with Adio who had been forced to come down from Kano for the burial of his children.When Adio sighted Morountola , he screamed ”ghost! ,ghost!!”, believing he was seeing Morountola’s ghost .
However, Mrs. Morountola Ojuri calmed him down and made a spirited effort to explain everything .”You see Adio, I am not a ghost”, Mrs. Ojuri continued , “I have come to sympathize with you. I don’t wish you bad and I am not here to do you any harm. We were together in June 1982 at the hospital where you abandoned me .I aborted for you four times but that fifth time I was not pregnant at all. I just tested your sincerity and to see whether it was true that you loved me. The doctor you took me to was my Cousin who asked me to put you to test .The blood dripping from me that night was not my blood but pigeon’s . I killed three pigeons and put the blood in a cellophane rubber and put it in my undies then punctured it with a needle and blood spilled out .
“When you heard that I was dead you ran away from Lagos and never to be seen again. You lied that you had been transferred to Kano, and didn’t come home saying witches and wizards in your family were after your life. If truly I had died then that is what you would have done. I later got married to my husband Ojuri, but he was not the man of my choice. For age was no longer on my side. I had no choice than to develop the love. I had only two children because of my age. I couldn’t have more according to doctor’s advise, and the two are doing very well. The woman you left me for was the devil .You allowed her to brainwash ,control and alter your divine love for me. She cast a spell on you and you became so weak and wicked towards me that you forgot how much in love we were and how we started. Five years later I met my husband and made sure I told him everything. It was he that suggested we should come here to sympathize with ………” she did not finish her statement when Adio’s cell phone rang and was informed that his last child, Ayo who was on life support machine had given up the ghost. Morountola broke down and wept, Adio was surprised for her sympathy. She consoled him and said God has a reason why they were not married. She left with her husband.
Later, Adio left Adunke for a younger woman to have a child for him, yet no child. Adunke’s business crumbled. She was in debt, later she left Kano and went back to her family house in the village in Ondo State.
Adio called this reporter and said:”Now I am 66 years old,I can not be employed again. I am down with hypertension and diabetes, my world has crashed. I have erectile dysfunction along with oligospermia ( low sperm count) and I am daily haunted by my sins ,what do I do?”.
This is a true life story . It was told by a- 66- year old man but names and places have been changed.Please what should Adio do?
