The saddest and scariest day of my life...

I had the most terrible experience on Monday 14th of this month. My younger brother Andre had gone to work as usual (he is an IT student at an organisation at Ikeja) and when he didn’t come back till 11pm, we knew something was wrong.


Someone sent my sister a message on Facebook that he had been involved in accident at Egbeda and was left for dead on the Express. That night, my folks went out in a car with our landlord to look for him. They searched all the hospitals in the area and didn’t find him. They even went to Ikeja General Hospital to search and was told that they hadn’t admitted any accident victim.

I don’t think I have ever been in that kind of situation ever in my life.

Meanwhile, we were trying to find out who made the call to the person that informed my sister on Facebook. It was already 1:45am Tuesday morning and we were yet to get any concrete information concerning my brother’s whereabouts. The guy that contacted my sister said the guy that called him said he had seen my brother lying on the Express, took his wallet, got a card and called the number on it and it happened to be his.

The biggest question was, Where at Egbeda? How was he? Was he still alive?. I kept shouting at the guy asking these questions. He had no idea.

The guy who was my brother’s friend gave us the number of the man that called him. It was around 2am and my folks were going up and down looking for my brother in streets and ditches. Best believe it. It took time him time to pick the call.

His story

He had seen my brother in a ditch near a filling station. He appeared drugged or something. He just took his wallet, took a card and called the number on it. So where was he, he wasn’t sure. He had called an ambulance immediately after that. He didn’t stay to know if they later arrived.

He described the filling station. My parents and landlord who had been roaming the streets of Egbeda began to look for this filling station hoping and praying that my brother was still alive. They stopped at all the filling stations they saw to search. The search wasn’t fruitful.

They had almost given up. My mum who is a very strong person had broken down in tears and my sister’s wailing resounded in the night. It was 3am.

Then they sighted the police and stopped to ask them if they had seen anything concerning Andre.

They said they had, described my brother to a ‘T’ and said he had been drugged , before being robbed of everything including his shoes, trousers and shirt and thrown out of a moving vehicle but he was lucky that he fell into mud and sustained minor injuries. They had taken him to a nearby hospital. My parents were taken there. My brother was unconscious, was nearly naked and hadn’t received any form of treatment.

The good news however, was that he was alive.

What really happened...

My brother entered a bus going to Egbeda at Ikeja. Shortly after, the guy beside him bought ‘pure’ water and gave him one explaining that the hawker didn’t have change. He was thirsty though so he thanked the stranger and drank some and told him the water had a taste. And that was it. Both the hawker and the guy were in on the ‘deal’. Nobody knows the full story and no one will ever know but I will be forever grateful to God for saving my brother’s life. And I pray that none of you would ever be this sort of situation ever in Jesus’ Name. Amen!

May God always protect you and your loved ones.

Lily Johnson