HOW THE POLICE TRIED TO UNRAVEL THE TUNNEL OF NO RETURN

News had gone round that the Police had been dispatched to the camp to deal with the beasts. This sparked off a surge to the police station by the fled refugees who were very anxious to know what the police found. The police responded by sending out a public announcement that all who vacated their homes for fear of any attack from wild beasts should now return as the police had been dispatched to keep guard over the entire area.

            This call was not encouragingly heeded to. Several were too frightened to return.            In the meantime, complaints about missing children continued to pour into the police station. At the same time several stranded persons, mostly children were continually being brought to the station. It got to a stage where the police had no more room to keep stranded persons. It therefore decided to return all such persons to the Gake camp, which was now being heavily guarded. Another police statement went round requesting all who were looking for their children or relations to return to the Gake camp. Several who came back met their missing relations and got re-united.

            Life in the camp gradually started returning to normal as more and more of the refugees came back. Many recovered their abandoned belongings and a few complained of missing personal effects.

            The police continued to keep guard over the entire camp, but this did not sufficiently encourage the inmates to step out of their camp after 7pm. Everyone provided himself or herself with some container for passing out urine at night should there arise a need to do this during the hours of the night.

Mr. Tagu who started the alarm that led to the stampede had himself become re-united with the family in the camp. He had been too scared and too sorry for the pains his alarm brought to people that he kept sealed lips all along. However one aspect of the whole episode had continued to puzzle him, and he had frequently turned

this over in this mind: He believed that he had been attacked by some beast which shook him violently and threw him down. He believed that his loud out-cry and the stampede that followed had frightened away the beast, but he was surprised that he could not find any mark of the beast’s grip on any part of his body.

            “Perhaps that beast did not mean any harm”, he often mused. “Perhaps it merely ran into me by accident. No! it didn’t. Didn’t it shake me very violently? It held me and shook me very violently and then threw me down,” he continued

            “But where are the marks of its claws? I cannot see any marks;” he wondered, as he looked himself over.

            Mr. Roberts, the camp superintendent was back to his job.

When no more refugees were being expected to return, he took a roll call of all his inmates, and discovered that seventeen people were yet to return. Many feared that these seventeen people were the victims of the beast. It was often recalled that the stampede started when a loud voice was groaning in pain, and since no one had yet come forward to report that it was he who was that victim in pains, it was generally believed that the beast did kill that groaning victim and possibly several others. Some of the refuges who were very friendly with the missing persons mourned them.

            The police tried to assure the mourners that those missing from the camp must be safe some where else.

            It stated that if there was such an attack on the missing persons they would see evidence of blood and pieces of human bones. This reassured some of them.

            The next day, Mr. Roberts came out with the discovery that all the seventeen missing persons came from four different families that were missing in the camp. It was then widely held that these missing families must have re-united and decided to go away from the camp finally.

            This view was soon confirmed when Mr. Gbati, returned to the camp to report that he had gone with his family to stay in Jugh where his elder brother was living. This brightened up the spirits of everyone against an earlier fear that the seventeen missing persons might be dead. 

            Apparently encouraged by this bright hope, Mr. Tagu, decided to reveal himself. He approached the head of the Police team posted to guard the camp and told him that he would like to address the members of the camp, and requested him to give him protection because he did not know what the reaction of his fellow refugees would be like.

            “Oh: there is freedom of speech in this country.

You are free to speak to your members, and we give you every protection. That is our job; I hope you will not be abusing them?”

            “No, Sir I will not abuse anybody”; Mr. Tagu promised the Police officer.

            Every inmate of the camp had. gathered for the usual address by the camp Superintendent. After he had spoken, Mr. Tagu, raised his right hand and said; “Excuse me, Mr. Roberts, I have something to say .“Yes ,let’s hear you! “he granted.

“My fellow refugees.

Before saying what I want to say to you all this morning, I would first of all like to thank the Almighty God, in the name of all of us here for sparing our lives during that exodus, and for making it possible for all of us here to return safely. We are sure and we pray that in the same way, he will help us to return to our own homes which we have left for a long time because of the fear we have for the mysterious hole found in Aniche. He alone knows what is living in that hole, and we beg him to help our government to quickly deal with that hole and make our homes safe again so that very soon, we may all return home and continue our farm work.”

            “Amen! Amen!” Thundered  everyone in applause. When the noise subsided, Mr. Tagu continued:

            “You will all recall that it was the very day that a priest would have visited here that we ran. It pained me so very much, not only because we missed that singular opportunity to worship God with the sacrifice of the holy mass, but also because I was the cause of the whole mishap”.

            Spontaneous shouts erupted from the entire people, interrupting Mr. Tagu. Some jumped to their feet, stretching out both hands. Several women were seen clapping their hands once or twice and resting them on the two sides of their hips. No one could discern, a single sentence spoken by the crowd as every one was shouting on top of his or her voice. At this the police men stood at an alert to defend Mr. Tagu in case of any attack on him. Mr. Tagu on his part, tried in vain to obtain further audience from the crowd until Mr. Robert shouted for quiet at the top of his voice as he knocked a piece of stick on the table. At this, voices began to subside gradually until silence returned, and Mr. Tagu resumed “If you will be patient with me and listen, I will explain everything in detail here. “Explain! Explain it; we want to hear it now!!” came sporadic shouts at the top of voices.

            “As soon as the lights were switched on, that fateful morning, I woke from my bed, pulled out my bucket of water, and hurried to the bathroom to take a bath in order to prepare early enough for the arrival of the priest. After bathing and drying my body with my towel, I hurried to the drying place to spread my towel. As soon as I raised my arms to spread the towel on the rope, something shook me very violently and threw me on the ground. When I fell down, the very ground on which I fell was shaking violently, and I continued to feel my body being violently shaken again. I was expecting myself to be devoured the next moment by the attacking wild beast, in fact my mind quickly ran to the big beast believed to be living in the underground hole in Aniche. This thought frightened me the more, and I shouted and shouted for help, as I struggled to free myself. I even found it difficult to rise from the ground where I had fallen.

            As I tried to rise, I fell back again and the shaking of my body continued. By the time I finally succeeded in wriggling myself out of that grip, there was panic in the entire camp, and everybody was running. This frightened me the more, and I joined in the flight. My thinking then was that there must be other beasts which had invaded the  camps. When day-light came and I was able to look my body over, I was surprised that there was no wound on my body. In fact up till this moment, I am still very puzzled about it. Sometimes I wonder whether it was the spirit that I encountered. This was because, I actually did not see anything during that encounter; and yet I felt my body being violently shaken. Besides, there was no mark of the animal’s grip on my body.

            Mr. Roberts, who had burst into a big laughter, was soon joined by the police officer and a few refugees who appeared to be amused by Mr. Tagu’s story.

            Mr. Roberts now stood up, still laughing. He waved his hand for silence which he soon got; and he said.

            “My good friend, “referring to Mr. Tagu; I am, sorry, you were only shocked by naked electric wires. In fact it was only a few days ago that I noticed the wires lying on the ground and some fell on the rope where you people spread your towels, and I called the attention of the electrician, who then has since repaired them. You see; the pole holding the wire, fell down during a heavy rain fall, thus bringing down the wire. In fact we are lucky that we have not yet started the electric generator since you returned, because we are waiting to get it thoroughly serviced before putting it into use once more. If we had been using that generator since you returned, more people would have suffered Mr. Tagu’s fate and perhaps we would have run away again, because as I said earlier, it was only a few days ago that the thing was repaired. However we thank God that Mr. Tagu did not die. In fact, if it were a bigger generator, the shock would have killed Mr. Tagu instantly”. At this, the gathering was dismissed, and people surged round Mr. Tagu to shake hands with him; Many spoke of gratitude to God for sparing his life during that ordeal. Soon after, the revelation from Mr. Tagu on what started the exodus became a major news item in the entire neighbourhood. Thereafter several visitors called at the camp to have a chart with him. Some of such visitors included journalists who later gave the news wider publicity through the local news media.