Close Shaves Series – part 5: The ritualist story

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I remember on a particular Sunday in June 2005. I was on my way to my university campus, and had to stand at the bus stop closest to my home to wait for a bus. It was while waiting for a bus that a man came to strike a conversation with me. Before I knew it, a car pulled up in front of us, asking for directions to a certain place.

Due to the persuasions of the guy that had come to speak with me earlier, I acted out character, and got into the car that pulled up in front of us, after they offered to give us a ride, since I had helped them with their directions. I got into the car, and it took off.

While in the car, a man seated at the passenger’s side in front started saying that one of us (either me or the other guy) was planning to travel, and that the person should not travel, because he won't come back alive. The other guy said it is true, that it was him, and he started shaking, saying “how did you know?” and basically fidgeting and hailing the “prophet.”

So the prophet turned to me, and said he has something to say to me. He said that some people were trying to tamper with my destiny. The other guy was still fidgeting, and trying to interrupt, and the prophet shut him up. I looked at the prophet well, and the woman driving...

Rewine…. eniweR

Earlier that afternoon, I had gone to the salon to relax and set my hair, and the TV station was tuned to Nkan Nbe, by Kolawole Olawuyi. If you don’t know it, this is the time to go to google. Let’s just say Nkan Mbe stories, as surreal as they seem, are very real. If you did not believe them, cos you thought they were stranger than fiction, now is the time to start. Anyway, so they featured this woman, she was very restless, and jumping up and down like a mad woman. She said she met a man and a woman who asked her something, and when she answered, they started telling her many things about herself that nobody could know. They told her there was something that had been planted in her body, and would kill her soon, and they would help her remove it. So they took her somewhere, and she opened her legs, and they brought out several red strips of clothings and some other things out of her vagina. I saw all the items on the TV program, with my korokoro eyes. They asked her to describe the people, and she did, in vivid deatail. By the time the program was over, they had not yet found a way to solve her problem, but they warned viewers to be careful, as the ritualists were still on the prowl.

Back to present 

It was at this point I realized they all knew one another, and I had just been kidnapped by ritualists. Not just any ritualist, but the ones who carried the woman in Nkan Mbe, her description the people was etched in my brain. I matched every single face she described to the three people in the car with me. I was very scared, but my fear did not show on my face. I only smiled faintly as the man in front (the prophet), continued to talk to me, while I continued to keep silent.

The man looked at my hair and said I am feeling fly because of my hair. He said that where I made my hair earlier in the day, someone packed my hair strands from the floor in order to tamper with my destiny, but they can help me. He said I think people like me, but one day, someone put something under a doormat, and I stepped on the doormat, and they deposited something in my body. Of course, I already knew he was going to say this because that is what they told the Nkan Mbe woman. I kept on smiling. He now said they can help me remove the strange things in my body. He started asking me questions, when he saw I was not saying anything. The Holy spirit just kept telling me “don’t say a word. Whatever you do, don’t open your mouth.” so I kept on smiling, even though on the inside, I was scared, and had no way of escape. I knew there and then that if I spoke to that man, I was gone, cos he would use his fetish powers to find out things about me, that he would not ordinarily know.

He tried more tricks to get me to talk, but I did not budge.

By this time, the car was on very high speed on the express, so there was nothing I could do to escape. After a while, the man called me arrogant and puffed up, because after everything he had said to make me feel agitated, I did not look bothered, and I kept smiling. I knew the only way to get out of my situation was to keep silent, and that the moment I replied the man, things would not go well because he would diabolically use my statements against me. Till today, I am still amazed at the confidence I radiated on the outside, because on the inside, I was crying, and begging God to save me.

After a while, it was the man that started getting agitated. He was really accusing me. It was as if he knew that I knew what he was up to. Maybe he thought I was a witch, and he had carried bad market. As for me, I knew it was just the God in me. I could say he must have even been scared. He looked scared, and started insulting me, saying I was arrogant, and I think I know everything.

As we approached the place I was to alight, I faced the woman driving, and said

"Please, drop me here. This is where I am going." or something like that

By now, I was really praying they would oblige since I was at their mercy. Without hesitation, the lady pulled over, and I got down from the car, heaving a great sigh of relief. I had just been delivered from the claws of evil.

This story is very special to me because it was a close shave for me that day. I was saved, by no power of my own. I could have lost my life or mind, like the Nkan Mbe woman, and disappeared from the face of the earth, but I am alive to tell the story today. God saved me.