THIS IS A POST ON THE KILLING OF 7 YR OLD BOY IN LAGOS!

Let me share my own side of this lynching story. From where the alleged thief was burnt, to my house is a trekable. It is a notorious bus-stop for phone thieves i.e Alafia, the bus-stop before Orile, if you're coming from Mile 2. I lost my blood brother to these thieves in January of this year. He was 20, was coming back from dance rehearsal. He was holding his friend's Samsung Tab when the thieves approached him & without warning, stabbed him in the neck. His friends didn't know what happened cus he was at the back. After he was stabbed, he ran towards his friends... and cried for them to help him, that he had been stabbed. Immediately after making that statement, he collapsed.

My bro. is huge in size, so it was difficult for his friends to lift him. Even when they did, nobody stopped for them or offered to take him to a hospital. A good Samaritan bikeman helped and took him to a near by quack hospital. The hospital rejected him. It was a lost cause. So his friends abandoned his lifeless body on the road opposite the 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. 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 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 and saw my brother's lifeless body on the floor with dozens of people staring at him like he just landed on earth. 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. Some of our neighbours who had heard my mum screaming also followed us. It was difficult for the bike to balance cus of my bro's weight. So our neighbours carried him on their hands to another hospital, which also rejected him on the spot. I heard a medical worker say, eleyi ti ku na, which translates to this one is dead na. I begged for them to check him at least. They refused and told us to go the General hospital. We took off again inside a keke... I was half-naked at the bus stop begging bike men, keke & anything on wheels to help lift my brother. None answered.

Long story cut short, my family is still recovering from the trauma of that night. Sometimes, my mum waits for us to go to bed, before draining herself in her tears. It has been months, but go and see my mum now. She looks frail and has been aging rapidly, thanks to over thinking. When I don't pick my call, she goes into panic mode. She might never recover. I sent messages to @YomiShogunle and @rrslagos767 and also to @aleeygiwa. @aleeygiwa called back & we spoke for minutes. I complained about that bus stop and that we reported to the near by Police station, but they refused to do anything. @aleeygiwa promised to visit and check out the notorious spot himself. I've been waiting since January.

Now, read carefully. After the murder of my brother, I have heard that close to a dozen people have lost their lives to the same phone thieves at Alafia bus stop. I happen to know one. A young and newly married man who had a shop close 2 my street. I have also met people who have escaped these murderers by a whisker. The thieves in Alafia bus stop don't ask for your phone. They stab you and then take it from you. On Saturday, I was preparing to head out for a soccer match when a friend called. He sounded excited, like he just won a lottery. ''Obi, he said, I just witnessed the lynching of a thief in the same bus stop your brother was murdered.'' My mum was close by. so I told her what my pal just told me. This was what she said '' The spirit of Obinna(my brother) will not rest until his killers are dead. I didn't heed to calls to go to a shrine. I know my son can fight for himself, dead or alive''

See, it is easy to speak up against lynching when you've never been a victim of these fuckers. You don't have nightmares like my entire family does. You can speak up because you have never ever seen your dad cry like a baby over the death of his son, or your mum continuously deteriorating as a result of over thinking. Praying day & night that she doesn't loose another child 2 these murderers. I was defending d thief, thinking it was truly a 7 year old. It just connected, when I saw the tweets from @YomiShogunle confirming it was the same thief that my friend called about. If I was there, I would have personally bought d fuel used in burning him. The thieves had no plans to stop

Hopefully, when the community starts to take matters into their hands and show these retards that we mean business, they might stop making families miserable. And oh, these guys once threw a man off that Alafia bridge for refusing to hand over his phone. I am against lynching by the way. But this particular issue is very personal to me.Thanks"

From a Twitter user @Harri_Obi