Vigilante Justice
FROM THE FIELD February 10,2014
VIGILANTE JUSTICE
I decided one time to take a bus to Lagos (an over eight hour trip) instead of going by car or plane. There was a new bus route set up from Etinan(like our county seat) with a new bus. I had seen it and thought it looked good and would not be breaking down. Purchasing two seats so that I had enough room for me and my luggage I boarded the sixteen passenger bus. We were delayed in starting from Etinan. They have this practice that a bus will not set off until there are enough passengers to make a profit on the trip. So we waited. Then 45 minutes away at Uyo we were delayed again. Upon leaving Uyo and paying the road tax we reached the border of the two states. Here we encountered yet more demands for road tax payments. The passengers were vocal in their complaints about further delay. Nobody wanted to travel the road at night to Lagos. One time Martin Essien and Pastor Edwin while travelling back from Lagos were stopped by gunmen. They were taken out into the bush, told to lay on the ground and robbed. Thanks to the Lord the gunmen only took Martin’s car not any lives.
The tax man who was the chief spokesman at the border used the standard practice for keeping a vehicle from going until the tax was paid. They had long boards with nails in the end that are put under the front and rear wheels. We had two drivers who both argued that we had already paid a sufficient road tax. The passengers also complained, but to no avail as the boards stayed in place. The chief spokesman was a particularly loathsome fellows who had scars on his face and some pussy boils. One of the drivers got out telling his partner that he should go down the road a ways when he gave him the word and he would catch up. The driver who got out yanked the board out from under the front wheel and off we went with a cheer from the passengers.
Then we stopped farther down the road to let the other driver catch up to us. I looked back and could see a shoving match turn into punches being thrown. Then our driver was hotfooting it toward our bus with one of the tax men in hot pursuit with his board. The passengers were yelling their encouragement to our man. The tax man though was hot on his heels. When they both got to our bus, a scuffle broke out between our driver and puss face, for he was the one who pursued our driver. The tax man grabbed onto both our driver and the bus not letting the driver get in. It was quickly decided by some male passengers to grab the tax man and take him with us. A couple guys hopped out to carry through on this. Once puss face saw what was happening he fought hard not to travel with us. But finally in he came with two guys holding him down behind me. Off we went with the tax man and his board. Some passengers, women as well as men, were talking about what to do with the tax man. One suggested, “Let’s drive down the road a ways and throw him into the bush.” Another said, “What about throwing him off the bridge that’s up ahead.” I looked over my shoulder at that poor wretch, but sorry to say did not feel pity. If the vigilantes would have tried to kill him, I would have intervened, though short of that I would sit it out and let justice take its course. We stopped and they pushed puss face out. Well now, previously he fought tooth and nail not to get in the van. Now he clung to the door with all his might not to leave the van. But there were just too many of them, so out he went. He was OK though, as I saw him running after us and shaking his fist vigorously at us as we drove away. The drivers kept his board with nails and gave it to some police at a check point down the road saying they had picked this up along the way. The drivers just shrugged when a policeman asked about the blood smear on the side of the bus. We got to Lagos before it was too dark with no further incidents. It is a sinful world.