(A true-life story)
By Pade OLAPOJU
The convocation ceremony of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife took place last week without one of the graduands. She was killed by her own cousin, the Sunday preceding her graduation after labouring for years to get to this place of glory.
Oh, how her classmates wept at the sad news, testifying of her brilliance and easy going mien, adding that she didn’t deserve that kind of cruel ending.
Janet (not real name) was supposed to graduate as an engineer at the prestigious OAU last Friday. She had dashed home the weekend before the convocation week to collect her specially sown dress from her mum’s dressmaker, without any inkling that death was lurking in her own home.
Her mother (Mrs. P) had been separated from her dad as soon as she finished building her house, taking Janet and her siblings with her to live in the new house. Their mother pampered and spoilt Janet and her other children just to prove a point that it is better staying with her than living with their father.
Now, Mrs. P has a big sister who was having an issue with his only son, Jude, who is a drug addict. He’s been on a cruise from Indian hemp to heroin, kolos, cocaine, etc. There was nothing she and her husband did not do to have him reformed and rehabilitated, to no avail. Mrs. P, being a no-nonsense woman asked her sister to send the boy to her to be living with her for his reformation to be fast and complete. Then Janet came home.
Jude was so besotted with Janet’s beauty and intelligence that he forgot or was beclouded by drug abuse that he didn’t remember or couldn’t be bothered that they were cousins. Meanwhile, Mrs P could not decipher the oncoming danger. She noticed the closeness quite alright, but just waved it off as two cousins bonding.
On this fateful Sunday, Janet was to return to school later in the evening, after collecting her dress from the dressmaker. She told her mum she needed to rest, taking an excuse for not following her to church. That was the last time Mrs. P spoke to her daughter alive.
She met Janet Stone dead, stabbed to death with her kitchen knife with her intestines all over the kitchen floor, when she returned from the church. The suspected assailant, her nephew she offered to help rehabilitate, had taken off. Nowhere to be found. End of the road for a young, intelligent lady’s aspirations.
Nobody knew what transpired between the two cousins, but it is being speculated that Jude, taking advantage of the two of them alone in the house, must have tried to force himself on Janet who resisted. And in a bid to protect herself, she must have ran into the kitchen, snatching the kitchen knife, which was eventually used to kill her, to protect herself.
Eventually, the police succeeded in arresting Jude at one of the drug joints. But Mrs P’s family, especially her parents (the cousin’s grandparents) are mounting intense pressure on her to drop the case as they won’t want to lose two of their grandchildren to ‘the devil’s handiwork’. If you are in Mrs. P’s shoes, what would you do?
*Stories that touch the heart, which debuts today, will be published once a week in Zapexpressnews. It may be increased to twice or three times a week depending on response from readers.
