BASED ON A TRUE STORY
This is a story about a boy who lost both of his parents to a religious riot in Nigeria at the age of 11 and had to seek asylum in England. Today he is one of the best footballers in the world.
It was a sunny thursday morning in Kaduna, a city in northern Nigeria, the time was exactly 7:17am. Wilfred and his family had woken up like every other morning. His father and mother were Christian missionaries and headed a church in the community where they lived.
Wilfred was already set for school. And was waiting for his mom who was readying to go drop him off. Then there was a loud bang! People were running and screaming, mothers, fathers, children all in disarray, there was chaos everywhere. Wilfred peeped from the window of his house and was shocked by what he saw. His neighbor who happens to be his best friends dad was lying headless on the ground 15 meters away from their house. Mom! Mom! he cried out, something bad is going on, Tony's dad doesn't have a head anymore.
Wilfred peeped from a window
His mother already heard the noise but didn't think it was a riot taking place until she heard what Wilfred said and knew something serious was going on. At this point she ran out, and chills ran through her spine when she found Mr Ogonna her neighbor lying headless on the ground. She knew their house was the next target. So she bolted the door, ran with Wilfred to the kitchen, there was an opening in the ceiling. She lifted Wilfred up and hid him in the ceiling. By this time the Islamist were already banging on their door, she knew it was only a short while before the door would be brought down.
At the time there was no mobile phone service in Nigeria so there was no way she could reach out to her husband who had gone out at about 6am for his daily morning outreach to know if he was safe. The banging on the door continued and after a few minutes the door came crashing to the ground. “Kashe ta, ta ƙazantu", a Language known in Nigeria as Hausa which means (kill her, she is unclean). Wilfred's mom was beheaded in spite of her pleas with her son watching from the ceiling just above her head. The Islamist searched the entire house to see if there was anyone else and could not find anyone, to their dismay they left because they were frustrated and thirsty for blood, they had hoped to kill Wilfred's father and everyone else in the house. A lot of people lost their lives, some entire families were slaughtered in the inferno.
The riot lasted for over 13Hrs
The riot lasted for over 13 hours. And had calmed down at around 9pm. Wilfred who was shocked and in fear with his school uniform on was still in the ceiling. He heard voices in the house, they were people from his church who had come to deliver the message of the death of his father who had been killed while on his outreach to his mother only to meet her headless body lying on the ground with flies around it. Wilfred could recognize the voices. So he cried out “i am here please help me!"
To be continued on Tuesday...
This story is originally written by me @slausonboy and is only available exclusively on steemit
Photo credit: google.com