The First strike

Blood, high pitched screams, chaos , fire , was all that was happening at a remote village in the second largest city in west Africa, someone had been murdered in cold blood , his body cut into table sized meat and his head had been cut off and taken away by unknown men, this is the second murder in two weeks.

Women are wailing , kids are crying, fire of unknown cause, just pure chaos, questions were being raised , who did this , where will the killer strike again , are we safe ? Should we vacate the village?. The village head baale has been informed and he just arrived with his security, he sent gbenumo his town crier to run to the nearest police station which was in the next city , 2hours away.

This isn't the first of such occurrence and the police have been invited severally but they never showed up , baale hoped that this time they would be more concerned and show up.

While waiting for the town crier, baale organized a meeting with his chiefs, they all gathered , everyone was downcast , their faces were gloomy and a sad cloud hung around the atmosphere, it was so silent that even a pin drop would be head, baale cleared his throat to break the silence , the chiefs looked up waiting to hear what the king had to say.

My chiefs, our town is one of the most blessed town in the whole of ibadan, we boast of warriors, fertile land, beautiful women and hard working men, one of who was jegede that was murdered in cold blood, jegede's family said they all went to the farm to harvest crops when men in black clothing with face covered invaded their land with guns , they narrated how jegede fought but was overpowered by these masked men , who cut him into bits and decapitated him , they didn't end it there , they took turns to sleep with his wife and two daughters before making away with his head.

I strongly believe that this is a ritual killing , the first person that was killed two weeks ago was a woman returning from the stream to fetch water she was accosted and her private parts were cut off and her breasts were also cut off , I think it's time we summon the gods to take control , what do you think my chiefs.

It was chief osi who first responded , kabiyesi ooo he said , I think we should summon the gods , let us call on the Chief priest so he can shed more light on this matter , we cannot open our eyes and watch our people be killed one after the other like mere chickens , we are great people , great warriors, we must find a way to bring the perpetrators to book and serve them justice as due or is there someone else who disagrees with me ? He looked at the other chiefs , they all screamed no and agreed with osi.

In that case baale said let me send one of my boys to get chief priest while we wait for the town crier to come with the police.

30mins later the chief priest arrived with his charms ready for battle , before joining the gathering of Chiefs, he opened his local gin bottle and poured small into his mouth he muttered some words and then spat it around the place in a bid to wade of evil spirits.

Awó welcome baale hailed , we have been waiting for you please sit, Awo sat down and started murmuring some incantations only him could understand, he talked to himself for a while muttering so many words , he would stand up dramatically, sing and turn around spitting kolanut and pouring local gin on the floor , after few minutes of non stop drama , Awo spoke , my king I greet you , my chiefs I greet you , a dark cloud that was sent by the enemy has hung around our town and has refused to leave , more blood will be spilled , more people will be killed , more ritual killings will take place , this death wave would know no children both adult and children will suffer the consequences. The chiefs couldn't believe their ears and were already murmuring and thinking aloud.

This is terrible news baale said , awo please help us ask the gods the way out , is it chicken ? I will sacrifice, is it cow they want I will sacrifice my biggest cow , is it horse I will sacrifice the finest , please awo anything they want I will offer.

Awo stood up dramatically again , this time running around like someone possessed, talking to himself and screaming , awo sat down dejected , took a deep sigh and said baale the gods are silent.