Christian Living

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MICHAEL
The usual practice in Montgomery College in those days was such that when final year students have all finished writing their West African School Certificate Examinations, a central committee headed by the graduating social prefect sees to the organization of a party. The outgoing students look forward to this party with great excitement, because this is where to really show that one is a “correct guy” since studies, the school rules and regulations have constrained them for five years.
Michael Eniola is a member of the 1988 graduating class of Montgomery College. Michael is a very good-looking boy of about 17years. At his graduation, he was about 1.8m in height and well built. His name was corrupted to “Micho”. So “Micho” was a popular name in school because he was also very brilliant and social. He held no post but he could not be ignored.
By 1988 his year of graduation “the fiesta”, the name given to the annual party had assumed a dangerous dimension. It was not uncommon to see people fighting on the dance floor with broken bottles and other dangerous objects. This led to gangsterism and for this reason; security measures were always in place to forestall any undesirable development though it was no sure guarantee against some mischief.
Much as Michael was loved, there were some of his colleagues who hated him with a passion. Abraham Dogo’s hatred for him was well known by all the “happening guys”, this largely due to the fact that Abraham lost his girlfriend Naomi Chukuma to Michael. That was about 8 months earlier. They have been reconciled but Abraham is still bitter.
Each graduating student was free to invite a maximum of 2 persons to the party. Michael decided long before the invitation cards were printed that his big brother Eric will get one but the other invitee he couldn’t decide on easily. He wanted to invite a girl that is not known to his classmates to boost his image but remembering that Naomi would be hurt, he decided not to but instead left that to Eric to take care of.
Eric was an easy-going young man. He was about 2 years older than Michael. He had finished from the same school two years earlier so he knew how each graduant looked forward to the party and how dangerous the event could become. He would be there to keep an eye on his brother because he knew he had enemies.
Mrs. Phoebe Eniola their mother was a woman of good disposition. She was a widow having lost her husband some seven years earlier. She had tried to give her children very sound upbringing becoming of Christian children. Her first two children were male, and she had four of them altogether. She was more strict with her girls and that explains why the boys sometimes had their way with her. She strongly did not permit them to attend parties. The boys sneaked out of the house; they went but one of them never returned.

THE FIESTA
At about 8.00pm of the D-day, a Friday night, the venue of the party was already packed full with the hosts and their invitees. There was enough to eat and drink as they adequately prepared for the occasion. Everyone was skimpily dressed, the girls were out to cause their male friends to drawl over them non-stop.
Naomi Chukuma was also dressed in this mode. She stood out as one of the most beautiful girls of the night. This made Michael to be loudly hailed by his admirers; he too was not badly dressed. He wore a sky-blue Jean and a white T-shirt crested with the New York statue of liberty; he also wore a black shoe that fit so well.
The party began in earnest at 9.00pm. The master of ceremony who also was the social prefect introduced some guest to the high table. Some two teachers were present to attend the party. They took their places on the high table; thereafter the senior prefects male and female were invited to the table.
After the introductory speech, the dance floor was declared open. Michael Eniola and Naomi his heartthrob were invited to dance to the music of Bobby Brown. They danced to the admiration of everyone. They were loudly hailed. Michael was having the greatest time of his life, he had prepared for this day and he was natural, taking every development in his stride.
While Michael was having a very nice time and walking with shoulder high, Abraham was sulking in the background. He was deeply embittered by the air with which his hated adversary Michael was carrying on that night. He had enough sympathizers who also shared his deep resentment for the main man. They conspired to deal with him that night. It had to be the night of the fiesta so that his glory will be reduced to shame.
Everyone was dancing; drinks and food were served at about 12 midnights. The organizing committee did not make provision for alcoholic drinks but individuals who wanted beer came with their own. Everyone was having a wonderful time. Eric was engrossed in a new girl he had been chasing since he came into the party. He had lost sight of his brother since everything was going on fine without any hiccup. He concentrated on his newfound partner.
Suddenly, everyone in the hall heard a very loud scream coming from outside the hall. What had happened will change Eric Eniola’s life forever. He rushed out with his new girl to catch a glimpse of what was happening. On reaching he saw Michael surrounded by people and bleeding. He had been stabbed with broken bottles. Eric wore a new white long-sleeved shirt on this faithful day. He removed his shirt to stop the bleeding but couldn’t. It took some 10 minutes before help came; he rushed him to the hospital. Michael was dying.
None was found to be responsible for the attack at the scene of the incident. Mrs. Phoebe Eniola was sent for. While in the ambulance that rushed him to the hospital, Eric managed to make Michael his brother tells him who did that to him. He could still mention the name of Abraham Dogo and Jeffrey Adekunle. There were two others; Eric found this out at a later time. He swore by God that he was going to avenge this wrong should his brother die.
And Michael Eniola did die at about 6.00am the following morning. His mother fainted. She was also briefly admitted in the hospital. Eric was devastated by the news of his brothers’ death. He went to the police station to affect the arrest of Abraham Dogo and Jeffrey Adekunle; they were not found in their house. They were day students who lived in a rented one room in town; their parents lived in Lagos.
When they were finally arrested they were declared innocent because their parents had been sent for and they have “seen” the police authority. There was no proof that they committed the murder and they were released form remand.
And so Michael Eniola died. He had all the qualities that he would have used to the glory of God. Many times he was invited to the Christian fellowship of fellow students; he was not interested. He had a very bright future such that when the results of the exam were released, he passed all his papers but he was no more. The pleasure of this world has choked him out, his death has plunged his mother into sorrow and his siblings have been left mourning. The question that had always played on Naomi’s mind had been “What shall it profit a man to gain the whole world and loose his soul or what shall a man give as exchange for his life?” A Christian friend asked her that question some few weeks earlier. Then it did not make any sense to her, but now it really does. The following Sunday she followed her friend Agnes Adetutu to Church, and there she surrendered her life to Christ. She choose that path now and she will always remain a child of God.

The Revenge
Eric Eniola was thoroughly devastated by the court verdict. He was disappointed too. How could justice be thwarted in the face of so incriminating evidence? He had always heard it said that the rich and powerful were untouchable in this country. It saddened him so much. He had hoped that Abraham and Jeffrey would get up to 25 years imprisonment, but that was not to happen. The other puzzling fact is that, the other two who were party to the killing of his brother were not known to Naomi. He decided he was going to investigate into who they were, thereafter he would kill them all.
Eric shut the door of his heart to the gospel of Christ. He was now a year one student of Freedom University, in the Chemical Engineering Department. On one of his journeys from home to school in the northern part of the country, he traveled with one pretty young girl that was decently dressed. He thought to himself he doesn’t want to have any dealings with girls anymore let alone a Christian girl.
Their vehicle stopped at Lokoja so that they could eat and refresh. It was here that Rita Martins introduced herself to Eric and offered to buy him food, which he naturally declined. They got to know that they were both in the same campus. Rita is a Microbiology student. She is also of the NIFES fellowship. For this last fact Eric will not have anything to do with her so that when they exchanged addresses, he lied to her by giving her a wrong address because there and then she had started telling him of the love of Christ for the world.
How could he become a Christian now when there is so much to be done? All these boys must be put to death one by one in different ways and style. For Abraham, he wants to watch him scream into hell. He decided Jeff’s case would be different because he must torture him to reveal the identity of the missing link: the two boys that were part of the killing of his brother.
Two years have passed and Eric is still not pacified. He must carry out his plans since he has given his word to his dead brother. Reneging on his promise to the dead is betrayal, so he thought. He gave himself to reading detective books and watching espionage related movies. He must carry out his plans leaving no trace, even if he will be caught, it must be after he has completed his mission.
He code-named his operation “Operation Mercy”. With this type of name no one will ever suspect that he was responsible for any killing. At this period of their lives, all the boys responsible for Michael’s murder were in different parts of the country. Abraham is in a university in the south while Jeff was in the fore-most polytechnic in the country. They perhaps do not remember their wickedness of the former time. In their different schools they were in secret cults, so God was far from their day-to-day lifestyles.
Eric was not a cultist. He could not trust anyone enough to discuss his revenge plan. He had never killed, he could not even think of injuring his fellow man. This is a Herculean task he must accomplish having promised his brother. Gradually he built himself into a one-man army. During his leisure and holiday, he trained in the gymnasium. He developed his skill in karate and his knowledge on killing procedure was also broadened. He read different books: “The Day of the Jackal” was his favorite. No one was going to pay him but he was content that he would have avenged his brother.
One sure problem is that he would not be able to attack Abraham and Jeff in their schools since they were in secret cult societies. Doing that will stir up a kind of vendetta among the different cults, because they would erroneously attribute their killings to other cult groups. Eric is becoming dangerous but he still has a conscience, and sometimes he asks himself whether “Operation Mercy” was really necessary.
The way things turned out did not warrant him to travel too far to accomplish his first mission. Everywhere he went since he made up his mind, he was always ready for his mission. By some accident of faith, he traveled for a wedding of a senior friend in a neighboring town; it was also during the holidays. Jeff Adekunle was also in that ceremony. Eric spotted him first; this was to his advantage as he immediately withdrew himself from the ceremony. He took time to plan his line of action. He disguised himself with beard and eyeglasses. Of course they have not met in about 4 years so they have both grown. Eric is tall and strong, stronger than Abraham and Jeff in strength.
It was when Jeff was going to smoke in the bust to avoid being seen by some people he respected that he was trailed by Eric. He followed him carefully and stealthily. Suddenly Eric sprang on him from the back and held both of his hands behind. They were both well dressed but it didn’t matter when they were struggling. Eric held him tight, forced him to sit down; and with his hands still behind him Eric chained his hand with a cuff he bought some two years ago. He at this point cello taped Jeff’s mouth and made him sit opposite him.
He revealed himself to Jeff who now recognized him with the look in his eyes. Eric now slapped him furiously. He told him that he could not scream and if he did, he will kill him before any help could come and escape. So he now made him to talk, because only the truth could save him at this point. Initially Jeff was being stubborn he denied every knowledge of all that happened that far away night, but this did not last as Eric cello taped his mouth together again and horse-wiped him thoroughly. He cried and made a gesture that he was ready to talk. It was in the form of an interrogation.

Eric: Why did you kill Michael?
Jeff: It was Abraham’s idea.
Eric: How many of you were involved?
Jeff: 4 of us did the killing.
Eric: Who are the other two persons?
Jeff: Nathaniel Efosa and “Magnum”.
Eric: Who is “Magnum”?
Jeff: em’ His real name is Desmond Anigala.
Eric: Thank you.
Jeff: Please now let me go.
Eric was now merciless, one he now knew the name of the two other boys that participated in the killing of his brother. He has sworn to kill them one by one. He could release this young man to go, but from his findings he knew that Jeff and Abraham were dangerous. They will come after him with all that they have got. They will kill him too. He gummed his mouth again. He brought out a syringe from his pocket and a chemical that was marked with red paint. He injected it into his body twice and left him there. He looked around to remove everything incriminating. He watched Jeff drift into sleep; he now removed the cuff from his hand and the tape on his mouth. Though all this time, nobody came that way. He slept there for a long time and never woke up from that sleep. It was after the wedding reception that he was discovered. Eric was never found out. There was no trace that he did it. “Operation Mercy” had finally taken off; there was no going back now.
Rita Martins sought Eric out in school. She made it a habit to invite him to fellowship every week; he never honoured any of the invitations. She kept praying for the salvation of his soul. Rita was going to graduate a year ahead of Eric. She consistently prayed for the young man but till she graduated, nothing happened as regards his salvation. She never gave up.
This first killing of “Operation Mercy” happened in Eric’s third year in school. Now he saw time running out. He decided to travel to Abraham’s school. He disguised himself to study the environment. He discovered that Abraham was a lord of a sort there. It will be very difficult getting him among his gang of cultist. He traced him to his room. When he discovered where he was living he decided on his action plan.
He pretended to be the clearer of the hall in which he resided, clearing dust, refuse and garbage. He emptied the wastebasket at the entrance of Abraham’s door into his garbage can, and in the process he discovered that his room was fully rugged. This gave him a clue as to what he was going to do.
During the day he bought a gallon of petrol, a long rope and a lighter he hid them under the staircase of the hall he lodged in. From the room where he lodged, he could observe the happenings in Abraham’s area. His hosts have all gone for night reading and other people have slept; as Abraham too had returned to sleep. The moment the light was switched off in his room, Eric carried his gallon of petrol, the rope and the lighter and went to Abraham’s door, poured the petrol at his door so that the rug on the floor would absorb it. He then carefully pushed the end of the rope underneath the door after he had already soaked it in petrol. He held the rope to a position where he could easily escape. He set the rope on fire and escaped to his room. The fire burnt to the door and engulfed the door and the rug. Abraham was burnt from his sleep, he screamed into hell just the way Eric wanted it. Two down, two more to go. Everything was working out as envisaged.
Desmond Anigala called “Magnum” has always been a terrific character; he is still a very brilliant boy and doing quite well. He entered the university ahead of his classmates. He is now in the medical school of a university in Ghana. He is home on holiday. Driving out of his father’s office in Abuja, Eric had in mind that his death would be in an auto crash. The young man had always been a nice boy but he was misguided into taking part in the killing of Michael. One could say that in someway he was secretly envious of the impressible “Micho”, so he took part. During that holiday, Eric monitored the movement of the young man so well that when one of those days Desmond parked his car a little bit far away from his destination, the area was a little secluded. Eric had a tool bag with him; he opened the door of Desmond’s car with a master key and spoilt the brakes before the young man returned to his car. Desmond oblivious of the fact that someone had tampered with his car drove his car away. On his way, he lost control and when he attempted to match the brakes, it failed him and his car was hit on the driver’s side. He was rushed to the hospital; he did not die. When he actually recovered, one of his legs became bad and even now he still limps one leg being shorter than normal.
Eric did not like the idea of Desmond surviving the accident. He would strike again. He was already in his final year now so time was running out, as he wanted his killings to be done with while he was still a student. Hunting down Desmond will be the last assignment he will undertake. He therefore decided to locate and finish up Nathaniel Efosa. This young man should die with his body intact. He imagined what he would look like if he were attacked with a disease. Supposed he poisoned him, the young man will naturally die in his sleep. I cannot be stopped now he would think. He sought for an opportunity to poison his drink. From his deep study of detective and spy literatures, he had very sound knowledge of how to kill people with chemical substances gradually.
He disguised himself like the first time; he sought for an opportunity to hold the glass from which the young man was drinking his beer. He pretended to be helping the bar man collect his bottles and in the process while Efosa was not concentrating on his drink, he dipped down one of his fingers in his drink. The finger had a deadly poison that destroyed the nervous system of a man gradually. In about six6 weeks he would die and so did he. Nathaniel Efosa died some two weeks to his graduation from federal polytechnic.
In all these time, Desmond had returned to class to face his studies. The accident he was involved in kept him out of school for about six months. He actually missed one academic session; now he is back to school.
Rita Martins had graduated from school. She graduated a year ahead of Eric. They had delays in school as a result of strikes of different sorts by the lecturers. She was posted for her youth service assignment in a northern state. She wrote to Eric to repent and serve God. Eric for the first time decided to even entertain the idea of becoming a Christian in his mind. It sounded unthinkable.

HIS SALVATION
His final examination came and he graduated without any problem and after the exams, he decided to return to his home to spend some time with his mother. He had fulfilled his promise to his late brother to an extent, but Desmond is still alive he thought to himself, this young man has to die. He kept abreast of the academic calendar of Ghanaian schools but God had determined to save Eric from self-destruction as he has answered Rita’s prayers. It was while awaiting call-up into the youth service program that he began to feel a kind of emptiness that convinced him that he was not well. He was dissatisfied with life. Eric is a brave man; in fact he was born a brave person. He does not worry about the unknown; he just faces each day squarely. But now he was worried. He had some secret fears.
Rita wrote to him using his mother’s address, about this time Rita had just about a month to round up her youth service. He gave a reply to her letter therein expressing his desire to discuss with her in person. Rita was impressed that Eric has now wished to talk to her on spiritual matters. It gladdened her. On her return from the state where she served, after staying with her own folks for a week, she decided in the company of a cousin to visit Eric Eniola.
Eric was quite happy to see her. After the normal greetings, Rita would ask him of his spiritual life. Eric invited her for a stroll; he told her that he could not become a Christian because as at then his sins were grievious and besides he still had an obligation to fulfill for his dead brother. Rita was very calm and with a deep knowledge of the word of God she took Eric through the Bible, that no sin is too great that God cannot forgive. After a pause, Eric looking into her eyes told her he had killed three persons deliberately. He gave her the details of how it began and every style of the “Operation Mercy”. Rita was not alarmed. She was very balanced in her comportment; at least she did not betray any sign of emotional disturbance. She offered to pray with him if he was ready to repent. He repented and was prayed for. He wept deeply; he did not cry like this when his brother died. Eric was introduced to the pastor of one of the living churches in town, and there he started to serve God. He had been a Christian for two months when he met Desmond again one on one in a footpath. This is an opportunity he had longed for so badly. He could kill this young man by hitting him with a club behind his head.
Desmond did not recognize him at first and even when he did, he did not know that Eric was behind the move to kill him, more so nobody ever linked Desmond to Michael’s killing and every other persons that was involved were dead now; so why now?
Eric started crying again. Now he is a Christian and could not kill again; he cried deeply. This is the young man he had planned to kill and now he couldn’t. He had a lot of Bible verses in his head urging him against such actions of the previous days. A few days later he was called to serve his nation.

RESTITUTION
In the year 2001, Eric was called up to the National Youths Service Corps. His state of primary assignment is Bauchi State. He continued to live as a Christian while serving. He was a very active member of the NCCF. The rural rugged evangelism that NCCF was always committed to was one of the missions he loved.
He preached the word in “season and out of season”. His love for God was very strong. A few weeks to the rounding up of his programme, he began having some dreams about the murders he committed at various times. He would normally have an urge to go and confess to committing those crimes. Could this be the spirit of God urging him into doing this? It is really unthinkable; he could not imagine himself in jail. In Nigeria, prisons are very terrible, aside from the terrible state of prison facilities in the prison yard, the inmates themselves are very dangerous people. He had never planned to go there, that was why he left no trace when he carried out his attacks.
He completed his youth service but had no peace. He decided to discuss the situation of things with his pastor. The pastor started praying along with him for the mercy of God. It became clear to the pastor by divine revelation that Eric had to do restitution. Eric did not argue with the pastor when he was told that he had to confess to the boys’ family. This was a suicide mission. He thought; how would his mother take this? The woman has had enough sorrow in her life and he did not want to complicate her life any further.
After two weeks of prayers and fasting, he prepared for the worst. He wrote to the parents of the dead boys telling them in the letter the genesis of the crisis that led to “Operation Mercy”. He took responsibility for their death and offered to give himself up should he be needed to answer some questions.
Mr. James Efosa was the first to react to his letter. He moved swiftly to affect the arrest of Eric, who gave himself up without any resistance. His mother cried profusely wondering what she had done to anyone to be so unfortunate in life. She had buried her husband, her son, and now her first son is smelling death. She prayed so much from that day. The pastor organized the praying team of the church for unceasing prayer chain on his behalf. They never ceased to pray.
The parents of the dead boys teemed up to see that justice was done. After much torture, Eric was not charged to court; he was detained with the hardened criminals. He was dealt with for the first two weeks, but his Christ-like lifestyle soon won them over. They observed that he was really not like them. Before he was finally released six months later, two of the inmates had become very sound in their faith too. They had become born again.
With continuous prayer for the deliverance of Eric, God decided to have mercy on him. First, Mr. James Efosa surrendered his life to the Lord Jesus Christ in a church meeting during the period when Eric was being held. He was the one championing the police case. The police could not charge him to court but instead decided to send him to the psychiatric hospital, because it was unusual for someone to confess to murder in this country.
God touched the heart of Mr. Efosa and his partners. They arranged the bail of Eric and restored him back to his family. God has heard the unceasing prayer of his pastor and the praying team. Eric was rehabilitated. He felt quite free in his spirit now. He still continues to serve the Lord.
He secured employment in a paint manufacturing company in Lagos. He dedicated his time to serving the company well. It was during this time that he felt led to marry. He had been doing a great deal of soul-searching lately. One name that had consistently come to his mind is Rita Martins. They have been friends since the day they first met, how could he now talk to her about marriage. He summoned courage and traveled to her place to tell her of his intentions, after all he had always loved her but because of her Christian disposition decided to keep off.
Rita agreed to his proposal but her family would not hear of it. They said he was a murderer and could still relapse back to his wickedness. Eric and Rita fasted and prayed together with their brethren. Eight months after they started praying, God heard them. Mr. Martins gave his approval. They were wedded in church, and now live happily together and serving their God.

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