When she left Abeokuta that fateful Monday 10th October, 26- year old Abosede(not real name) never thought she was about to have a close encounter with hell. But that was what happened to her. She practically visited the biblical lion's den and came out unscathed.

Cruel fate

Abosede, who lost her parents when she was very young began petty trading to keep body and soul together after a cacophony of events destroyed her finances. She was forced into trading .

The HND Mass Communication graduate lost her job during one of the many reforms that hit the nation's banking sector.

But fate was not through with her as she fell into the arms of a gold-digger lover who conned her and made her lavish her severance package from the bank on him. The guy (name withheld), later ran away with another lady after putting Abosede in the family way.

Of course, he initially rejected the pregnancy and later attempted to coerce her into aborting it. She didn't . She had a baby girl and she'll be marking the baby's first year on earth at the end of this month.

Petty trading

Initially,Abosede could not continue her studies, because she experienced considerable hardship in trying to secure another job, but she courageously started to trade to make ends meet and ensure that her daughter didn’t starve. While struggling alone, she accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior. This later proved worthwhile.

She was however almost slaughtered for ritual but for providence. According to her, A woman who happens to be the daughter of a friend of my late father agreed to be giving me some goods on credit.

I 'm required to pay a part of the proceeds to her while I kept the rest. She gave me the first consignment which I promptly sold and paid her. The goods were worth N30,000 and included imported ladies bags, perfumes, shoes and other accessories.

Impressed by the speed at which she sold the first inventory and paid her , the woman asked her to come to Lagos to pick another inventory worth over N80, 000. I went to Lagos to do just that and after collecting the goods, I told her I didn't have transport fare back to Abeokuta.

She graciously gave me N1, 000 , but I told myself that I should be wise with the money she gave me so I shunned recognized motor parks and waited for transportation at Ikeja-along bus-stop for an Abeokuta-bound bus. A yellow bus soon pulled-by inviting Abeokuta-bound commuters.

I rushed in and pleaded with the conductor to accept N300 and he agreed. I was happy I had saved N700, but I didn’t know I was in for a massive encounter with death because, as it turned out, the vehicle was just a decoy used by human parts merchants to snare unsuspecting commuters.”

The ill-fated journey

The journey back to Abeokuta proceeded with no problem until we got to Sango-Ota in Ogun State and we ran into a traffic gridlock. The driver decided to take some shortcuts to beat the hold-up.

We passengers agreed, because we wanted to get to Abeokuta on time. The driver kept taking turns and corners and after sometime, a male passenger asked him when he would end his rather endless rigmarole and he replied very soon.

He continued and at a point our patience snapped and some of us asked him what was going on, because he had taken too much time trying to connect Abeokuta express road. Instead of responding, six impostors, four in the back and two in the front, responded. They brandished guns at us and told us to keep quiet and enjoy the journey because we were going on our last trip.

At that point Abosede said I was numb with fear and all I could remember was Psalm 121(I will lift up my eyes onto the hills from whence comes my help…).I was reciting the Psalm quietly until we got to one compound in the middle of a thick forest. They ordered us to disembark and we complied. We were then separated according to gender.

A plethora of shoes

The first thing that struck me as we entered the large compound was a mountain of shoes. We too were told to remove our shoes. Panic stricken, I urinated on my body when the thought crossed my mind that owners of these shoes must have been similarly kidnapped like us and never left that compound alive.

While the thought was going on in my mind, the men amongst us were lined-up and forced inside a hall and after some twenty minutes that seemed like eternity to me, a man clutching a blood-stained cutlass came out.

The sight of the cutlass made me jittery as I realized that my male fellow commuters must have been dispatched to the great beyond. The man then said it's the turn of the ladies and that  they should be ushered in on a single line.

At that point, I defecated again in my knickers. Some of us were already crying but I didn't cry.I kept my peace and rested my faith in God hoping for the very best of the bad situation.

Like sheep ready for the slaughter slab, we were herded into the hall and I saw some luxurious cars packed and owners waiting to collect their evil consignment from these merchants of death. They were waiting for human parts. My daughter was sleeping innocently in my arms.

The miraculous escape

A man that I suspect was the leader of the group was backing us and then suddenly turned and saw me and screamed at his boys asking who brought that woman with the baby here. He said I was a lion and I should be sent out immediately or the whole place will explode in flames.

He was so furious that he slapped one of his aides ordering that he should get me out of the compound immediately. A vehicle was hurriedly made available because the yellow bus that brought us to the forest had gone back to Lagos to pick other unsuspecting passengers. He went away with the goods I collected on credit from Lagos.

After driving for a long time, he dropped me at a village and I saw an old man, who told me that the name of the village is Ikomi-Oba. The man also said that the story I told him of my ordeal with human parts merchants was strange to him, because he had lived all his life in that village and he had never seen or heard such report.

The old man eventually believed my story when he saw how unkempt I was and perceiving the stench of defecation oozing from my body. He had pity on me and informed me that I may have to stay in the village for some days, because the village is only accessible by motorcycles and even the Okadas come to the village every three days which are market days.

He said another market day was two days away. I quaked within myself wondering how I would cope with my child in that village for two days.

But as we were still discussing my plight, a motorcyclist came in saying he came to see his wife and would be going back to town soon. The old man persuaded him to carry me and he paid him N300 instead of the normal N500.

Believed to be insane

After riding for a long while, he eventually dropped me at a place I later identified as a library at Ilaro, also in Ogun State. I had difficulty getting additional help as people there were not convinced I wasn’t a lunatic. Due to the defecation on my body, a swarm of flies followed me and I smelled awful.

I was confused and I started crying and then a thought came to my mind that I should flash my church pastor, Rev. Kayode Oloruntola of Foursquare Gospel Church. I flashed him twice and predictably, he called me asking what the problem was. That call was my saving grace.

When people around saw that my phone rang and I spoke intelligently explaining my problem to someone on the phone, their attitude changed. They

then offered me water to clean-up and put me in a car heading for Abeokuta without paying.

As I speak, I don't know what happened to all my fellow travelers in that ill-fated 18-seater bus but I suspect they could have all been killed and their relations would have declared them missing by now.

I learnt some lessons . Apart from thanking God for intervening on my behalf at that critical moment, I will never stand by the roadside looking for transportation when traveling to another state. I will always go to designated motor parks to take a bus. I wanted to conserve money but I ended up losing all the goods that could have assisted me in getting out of my financial mess.

I thank God for sparing my life, because I know when there is life, there is hope, Abosede concluded with tears welling up in her eyes.

credit link:  http://www.mjemagazine.com/escape-from-ritualists-in-ogun-state/