A university graduate, Sheriff Charles, has been
arrested for burying 25 raw eggs around the LEA
Primary School, Nabor, a village close to Angwa
Rukuba, Jos, Plateau State.
According to Sun, THE alleged culprit, Charles, who
resides in the village with his parents and other siblings was said to have gone to the school after
closing hours on Monday, November 24, 2014 to bury
the eggs between two blocks of classrooms. As he
claimed, the intent was for him to receive favour
from God and man. Charles has remained unemployed long after
completing the mandatory one year service, thus
prompting his recourse to what has now been
interpreted by people in the neighbourhood as
diabolic self-help that expectedly sparked off
apprehension in the village. The head of the school, Mrs. Deborah Solomon, said the pupils are now
scared to come to school.
Her words: "We the teachers are even scared because we do not know his motive. He buried the eggs
where the children normally go to play. We do
not know whether it could be a threat to the
lives of the pupils or it would have effect on
their wellbeing. Up till now if I say I am happy, it
is not true. I am truly worried. To encourage the children to come to school, some of us brave
the odds and come to school. Since the incident,
we do gather the few pupils who still come to
school to pray for our safety. I have been
encouraging them to believe in the living God
and not the type of god people like Sheriff believe in. I do tell them that our God would not
allow evil things to happen to us. So they should
not be afraid." Though Charles insisted that the eggs were not to
harm anybody but meant for his own good, Solomon
said the teachers do not believe him. "When we asked him to drink one of the eggs
if they are not harmful, he refused to do so. If
they have nothing to do with anybody he could
have buried them in his house and if not his
house, by the stream behind the school where
people rarely visit or by the hills behind the school but not in the school premises. I do not
know why he chose this school. There are other
private schools around here but he chose to
come here. Is it because it is mainly patronized
by the poor?" Giving insight on how Charles was discovered,
Solomon said she had already gone home on the fate
ful day, but a pupil of the school recalled seeing
Charles with a polythene bag in school. He dug a hole
in the ground and put something in it. The pupil ran
into the village to alert some people including one of their teachers living close by.
By then the villagers had already caught Charles,
who was being dragged to the house of the Mai
Angwa of Gwom Nabor, Mr. Sani Aware. The crowd
was just too large that it was not possible for her to
even see the man initially. Comrade Marta, who is the state treasurer of
the the Plateau State chapter of the Nigerian
Union of Teachers, said the mob was ready to
lynch the man. Some were even throwing
stones and other objects at him. But on getting
to Mai Angwa he took the suspect in and prevented them from killing him. The people
were very angry because they said the man
could as well have planted a bomb in the school
premises without them knowing, given what is
happening in some parts of the country now. Having taken effective custody of Charles, the Mai
Angwa used the security number circulated publicly
to invite the police and promptly handed Charles over
to them.
Continuing the tale, Ibrahim said: "He was taken to the school where he dug out
21 eggs in one of the holes. We did not see the
second hole until the following day when one of
our teachers was checking around. After
putting the eggs in the holes, he had used dry
grass to cover them up. Actually the teacher had used her foot to remove the dry grass
when one egg popped out. Three other eggs
were discovered in that hole. This is why
everyone is afraid. If we had not discovered the
other hole, nobody would know it was there.
Now we do not know whether there are other eggs buried in other spots yet to be discovered.
This is why everyone is afraid. "When the man was questioned even while
being taken to Mai Angwa, he wanted to
confess but his mother who came to the scene
did not allow him to talk. She was busy
shielding him. Even when the villagers were
throwing objects at him, she was using her body to parry them. At a point, her wrapper
loosened from her waist without her knowing.
When Charles was finally taken into the custody
of Mai Angwa, he confessed that he did it to
gain favour from man and from God because he
was unemployed. He said he got the idea from one of his friends
during his NYSC days, who told him, "If things
are not going well for you in life, you can go and
bury eggs in a school and immediately things
will change for you." Since Charles completed his service, he had not got a
job and everywhere he went, he met brick walls.
Then he remembered what his friend said and
wanted to experiment it. When he was asked why
he chose the school, Charles said it was because it
was closer to where he borrowed the digger and the shovel.
From information gathered, he had asked his
younger brother to collect the instruments for him
from a nearby house. To conceal his motive from his
younger brother, he sent the innocent boy to buy him
suya (roasted meat) at Angwa Rukuba, believing that he would have finished what he intended before the
boy would come back. When the brother came back,
he saw him in the midst of the crowd that was trying
to lynch him. Brotherly affection gave him courage
and strength as he tried to rescue him, not knowing
what wrong he had done. From every indication, the villagers are telling
Charles to tell his story to the birds because they do
not believe one word of what he said. Their doubt
stems from past experience that members of his
family are alleged to be notorious for committing
such diabolic acts even before they moved to Nabor because of the crisis that rocked the state capital.
While Charles was being led away despite the
strenuous efforts of his mother and brother to free
him, a woman came to the scene and asked the
villagers why they allowed the family to live there.
She said they were known for such diabolic acts while in Angwa Rogo from where they moved to
Nabor. This explained why his mother tried to protect
him instead of scolding him for getting involved in
such an action.
Following this development, the villagers have
served a quit notice on the family to leave the village. "We do not know whether it was their native
doctor that gave him the eggs to bury in the
school. They could be members of a cult and
could pose danger to even the whole village. So
they must leave," said a villager. Meanwhile Charles has been charged to court. The
school authority said it has been bearing the cost of
prosecuting him alone even though it has involved
the local government council in the matter.
Charles was charged to court on grounds of
constituting public nuisance and using criminal charm.
