A social media user has narrated he and his family’s experience with the Alafia Bus stop thieves.
Recall that a photo went viral yesterday of a thief who was mobbed and subsequently burnt by angry Lagosians, the social media user, Harrison who is a presenter narrated the incident which he reported happened not far from his house.
Read his tweets below:
1. Let me share my own side of this lynching story. From where the alleged thief was burnt, to my house is a trekable.
2. It is a notorious bus-stop for phone thieves i.e Alafia, the bus-stop before Orile, if you’re coming from Mile 2.
3. I lost my blood brother to these thieves in January of this year. He was 20, & was coming back from dance rehearsal.
4. He was holding his friend’s Samsung Tab when the thieves approached him & without warning, stabbed him in the neck.
5. His friends didn’t know what happened cus he was at the back. After he was stabbed, he ran towards his friends…
6. And cried for them to help him, that he had been stabbed. Immediately after making that statement, he collapsed.
7. My bro. is huge in size, so it was difficult for his friends to lift him. Even when they did, nobody stopped for …
8. them or offered to take him to a hospital. A good Samaritan bikeman helped and took him to a near by quack hospital.
9. The hospital rejected him. It was a lost cause. So his friends abandoned his lifeless body on the road opposite the
10. hospital. One of them ran 2 my house to call me. I had just come back from d gym, i had only gym pants on, no shirt
11. I did an intense squat programme that day. Mind you, i never do squats in the gym. I flung my phone and ran out as
12. fast as my tired legs could carry me, half naked. I didn’t even know my mum was following me. I got to the hospital
13. and saw my brother’s lifeless body on the floor with dozens of people staring at him like he just landed on earth.
14. I fainted, but some folks revived me and put me on a bike with my bro’s body. They put my mum on another bike.
15. Some of our neigbours who had heard my mum screaming also followed us. It was difficult for the bike to balance cus
16. of my bro’s weight. So our neighbours carried him on their hands to another hospital, which also rejected him on
17. the spot. I heard a medical worker say, eleyi ti ku na, which translates to this one is dead na. I begged for them
18. to check him at least. They refused and told us to go the General hospital. We took off again inside a keke…
19. I was half-naked at the busstop begging bike men, keke & anything on wheels to help lift my brother. None answered
12. Long story cut short, my family is still recovering from the trauma of that night. Sometimes, my mum waits for us
13. to go to bed, before draining herself in her tears. It has been months, but go and see my mum now. She looks frail
14. and has been aging rapidly, thanks to over thinking. When i don’t pick my call, she goes into panic mode. She might
15. never recover. I sent messages to @YomiShogunle and @rrslagos767 and also to @aleeygiwa. @aleeygiwa called back &
16. we spoke for minutes. I complained about that busstop and that we reported to the near by Police station, but they
17. refused to do anything. @aleeygiwa promised to visit and check out the notorious spot himself. I’ve been waiting
18. since January. Now, read carefully. After the murder of my brother, i have heard that close to a dozen people have
19. lost their lives to the same phone thieves at Alafia busstop. I happen to know one. A young and newly married man
12. who had a shop close 2 my street. I have also met people who have escaped these murderers by a whisker. The thieves
21. in Alafia busstop don’t ask for your phone. They stab you and then take it from you. On Saturday, i was preparing
22. to head out for a soccer match when a friend called. He sounded excited, like he just won a lottery. ”Obi, he said
23. i just witnessed the lynching of a thief in the same busstop your brother was murdered.” My mum was close by. so
24. i told her what my pal just told me. This was what she said ” The spirit of Obinna(my brother) will not rest until
25. his killers are dead. I didn’t heed 2 calls to go to a shrine. I know my son can fight for himself, dead or alive”
26. See, it is easy to speak up against lynching when you’ve never been a victim of these fuckers. You don’t have
27. nightmares like my entire family does. You can speak up because you have never ever seen your dad cry like a baby
28. over the death of his son, or your mum continuously deteriorating as a result of over thinking. Praying day & night
29. that she doesn’t loose another child 2 these murderers. I was defending d thief, thinking it was truly a 7 year old
30. It just connected, when i saw the tweets from @YomiShogunle confirming it was the same thief that my friend called
31. about. If i was there, i would have personally bought d fuel used in burning him. The thieves had no plans to stop
32. Hopefully, when the community starts to take matters into their hands and show these retards that we mean business,
33. they might stop making families miserable. And oh, these guys once threw a man off that Alafia bridge for refusing
34. to hand over his phone. I am against lynching by the way. But this particular issue is very personal to me. Thanks
