HIS KITO STORY (EDITION 34)
It was in 2014, and I was bored and broke at home, waiting for about six months for the next agenda of my life. To keep busy until this next phase, I decided to get a job.
What I didn’t know was that my village people had other plans. I was still searching for job when I came online on 2go and went into the Men’s lounge, to a job advertisement so to say. There were quite a number of job listings, and the one that caught my attention was of a pump attendant at a filling station, owned by the advertiser’s father, but which was being managed by the advertiser. The job also came with the perk of being the advertiser’s lover. And the pay was good, too good to be true in fact. But I guessed it was an advantage of doubling as the lover of the boss. On top of that, the guy was good looking. Sexy. I wanted a guy like him in my life.
I indicated my interest, and the guy added me up. And we started chatting. After about two weeks, I made up my mind; I would go for the job.
The job was in Aba, and I didn’t want to tell my mother about it. I intended to let her know of the job only after I’d secured it, because she wouldn’t have wanted me to work at that point in time. So, when I was set to travel to Aba, I lied to my mother, telling her I wanted to go see a friend and would be spending a few days with him. She asked me to put him on the phone so she would speak to him. I arranged for that with a friend of mine and after their talk, she was satisfied. My mom trusted me not to lie to her.
She gave me some money and an ATM card in case of emergency. I packed my bag and left the following day. I’d told her I was going to Enugu, a less than two-hour journey from where we lived, but I actually journeyed extra six hours to Aba.
I got to Aba around 7PM, and called the guy I was there to see. We’d been in touch both the day before my trip and as I was journeying to him. He came to the park to pick me up. He came in a taxi, something I found a bit disappointing because I’d been expecting he’d come with his car. (He’d mentioned that he was mobile.) After exchanging greetings, he said we’d be taking the taxi back to his place and that his car was undergoing some repairs. Minutes later, we were on our way.
While we were in the car, he asked to see the pictures in my phone. I obliged and handed him my phone. Soon after, we got to our stop and alighted, and he led me into a neighbourhood that seemed deserted. He told me we would have to trek down to his apartment. After a short while of walking, I began to feel uncomfortable. As though he suspected my burgeoning anxiety, he took my hand in his as he led me down a solitary pathway. At this time, I was starting to feel like something was really off. But I didn’t know why I was feeling this way and what to do about it. He tried to keep my mind away from my unease by conversing with me. And so, to participate in our conversation, I couldn’t focus on what was bugging my consciousness. I couldn’t think.
All of sudden, we came across someone lying on the ground. Beholding that was so out of place, and I suddenly had this unbidden thought to turn and run. I didn’t even know what the danger was, but I was suddenly aware that there was danger.
Before I could turn my thoughts to action, the man jumped to his feet and accosted us. He began barking questions at us. “Who are you?” “Where are you going to?” The guy I’d come to see (I can’t recall his name, but let’s call him, well, Satan) attempted an answer and said something which implied me and him were lovers. I was stunned. Before I could react to that, the other guy roared, “So, you are homo? You are homo, eh?” He divided a belligerent look between us before ordering, “Oya, give me your wallets.”
Satan handed his over first. My heart was thudding as I reluctantly gave him mine.
“I will deal with you today,” he barked before pouncing on Satan, making a show of beating him.
Then he turned to me and lashed a hot slap on my face. the events of the next few seconds seemed to happen in a blur. As the guy assaulted me, Satan broke into a run and vanished around a corner. Feeling panicked at being left alone to deal with this mad man, I pushed him off and ran after Satan. I turned the corner and I didn’t see him. Several emotions were pummeling my mind: fear, anger, misery, betrayal.
I kept running, because I’d noticed that the mad man was on my heels. And he was shouting “Thief! Thief!” after me. I ran first toward someone’s house, hoping he would be deterred and fall back. But he was still running after me, so I changed my mind about seeking help in a stranger’s house, and made instead for the main road where we’d come from.
When I got a street with a kiosk and some people around, I started shouting, “Thief! Thief!” as I ran toward them.
And miraculously, the guy pursuing me stopped his own shouting and ran back. Meanwhile, the people on the street gathered around me and began questioning me. I told them of the job on the internet that brought me to Aba and the guy who promised to help me get it and how I got here only to be robbed. I left out the homosexual part of the story. Fortunately, they believed me and had only empathy for me.
“Thank God Aba has changed,” someone said. “Your story would have ended differently with all these hoodlums.”
“We heard ‘thief, thief’. If it’s Aba of before, you would have been lynched first and questions will be asked later,” one woman said.
“You young people should be careful with this your internet,” some other person said.
They soon dispersed and I was on my own, suddenly realizing that I was stranded. Satan had been holding my phone and bag when he fled the scene. The other guy had my wallet, and as such, my money and ATM. I had nothing.
I was thirsty and hungry. It was nighttime, so where would I sleep? How would I get my mom on the phone? What would I tell her happened? All these questions and more filled my head as I continued to walking, going nowhere.
I walked for what seemed like hours nonstop. Not knowing where I was going. Not knowing what I was going to do with myself.
Then I got to a church, and from the crowded activity in the premises, I figured a night vigil was ongoing. I decided to pass the night there. I went into the church and joined the worship.
During the testimony time, I rose up, went to the altar and began talking about my thanks to God for sparing my life. I told them my story. How I had journeyed from another state for a job advertised on the internet, only to get to Aba and get victimized.
The church reacted very heartwarmingly to my testimony. A call for a contribution for my transport fare back home was called for, and people gave something. When it was counted, the pastor made it up to the full amount that would take me home by adding his own contribution.
And so, by daybreak, I was soon homebound. In the days, then weeks, then months after that harrowing night, I resist the temptation to analyze what happened to me, or judge myself by it. Instead, I focus on my gratitude that I didn’t lose my life. I try not to think about how just as badly it might have turned out to be. Considering how homosexuality is much more abhorred in this country than thievery, I wonder what would have happened if that guy pursuing me had been shouting “Homo! Homo!” instead of “Thief! Thief!”
Written by Astar
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30 Comments
Bhawscity
May 15, 07:09I have not been kito(ed) but I feel your pains. Sorry this happened to you, I really hope you have healed from this. Keep living.
And yes, I grew up in Aba, they were right, burn first and ask questions later was the deal back then.
Colossus
May 15, 07:142014? That’s 5 years ago, i believe you’re feeling loads better and the trauma only a little speck in your memory. The woman was right, thank God Aba has changed, they tend to lynch at the slightest whisper of thief or onye oshi.
The church thinking was a really good one, giving a testimony an even smarter one. Your mom is an amazing woman, taking all necessary precautions to keep you safe.
6hours to travel? Where were you travelling from? For a pump attendant job non the less. How were you going to solve accommodation problems? Questions abound.
Higwe
May 15, 07:32The guy I’d come to see (I can’t recall his name, but let’s call him, well, Satan)
?????????…. this line though ????
pankar
May 28, 10:31Ingenious a line
Murderer
May 15, 09:40Would u call me a murderer if I tell you I kill the 2 guys who try to kito me.
The year was 2017, I was barely 19 then.
It all started on grindr. Boy was good with words, I couldn’t help falling for him. with little or no persuasion I accepted his invitation to his house, somewhere at waterside, ijegun, satellite town, Lagos.
He said come by 7pm, which I did. But just before I set out to his house, mama gave me a kitchen knife to deliver to a customer (she sells kitchen utensils). She said “deliver it why coming back from your friend’s place”. I found it quite odd. I wanted to ask her why but I didn’t.
30mins latter I was with the boy at the junction he said I should stop. I was stunned by his handsomeness; dark and athletic. He suggested we walked down to his place. we got to the last house at the street. After this house was a river.
He noticed my uneasiness and put his arms around my neck as he told me that the building besides the river was his place. I kissed him. He did kiss back.
I noticed he didn’t want us to enter inside. I was about to asked him why when another guy accosted us from no where. “Hand me your phone and wallet,” he ordered. “No,” I yelled back at him, hoping the boy I had just kissed was on my side. To my surprise, he removed his belt and started hitting me with the head.
I was subdued and hesitantly handed them my phone. “We will drown u today”, both were saying as they were trying to push me into the river. I was pushing back, I had to put up a fight, I wasn’t going to let them kill me easily.
They were almost succeeding in pushing me inside the river, my past and dream was flashing before my eyes as I remember the small kitchen knife my mom gave me earlier. I reached for it and stabbed it deep inside the second guy chest, he screamed and fell down. As his friend bend down to know why he was screaming, I stabbed him deep in the back.
Both were now lying helpless on the ground. I wasn’t done with them, I made for the knife again, stabbing them randomly with reckless abandon, I didn’t stop until I couldn’t feel their pulse again.
Without looking back, I ran away till I reached the junction where I hired a Keke straight to my house.
Till today, my mom has never asked me about the knife.
So I asked again, would you condemn me as a murderer?
Kanje
May 15, 14:09Is this real or fiction?If it’s real, I need you to teach me to me self defense,that’s what it’s called not murder.xoxo.
Sim
May 15, 17:12I find this interesting- questions abound but I will rather bask in this win than find excuses to dim my delight.
Delle
May 15, 18:56One stab – self defense. Two at most to render incapacitated.
Multiple stabs? Now that’s disturbing (like your pseudonym).
But I’m glad you survived. Jeez though. Is this for real!?
Peace
May 15, 20:20Jesus Christ! I want to say serves them right but, I’m too shocked to even think or talk.
Higwe
May 15, 23:47Definitely an act of self defense ….
If you didn’t kill them , they would have killed you .
A prosecutor might think otherwise though ….the multiple stabbing makes it seem much more premeditated …you only needed a stab to break free and escape ….
The could be interpreted as an act of- brobdingnagian violence .
You could get a death penalty or a life sentence.
***************
As a gay man myself …I acquite you of all charges
You went through a traumatic experience …and it can be argued that you were not in the right state of mind then.
You have to forgive yourself.
You didn’t exactly kill people , you got rid of two monsters .
It was either you or them and you made the right choice by saving yourself.
Even if you had escaped after stabbing them once …who is to say they won’t come back to exert revenge ?
Whenever that feeling of guilt engulfs you …imagine yourself at the bottom of the river.
Imagine the tears of your mother.
The anguish of your loved ones .
Your dashed expectations and dreams .
Your poor unfulfilled soul wandering around for all eternity with no glimmer of hope in sight.
That is what those monsters had planned out for you.
So ,quit tagging yourself a murderer .
Engage in something that will unburden your conscience ….maybe get a career that involves saving lives or anything in line with that.
Your case is very justifiable ….you were literally facing death ….and what do we say to the god of death ?
Not today .
That Ghana Boy Rudy
May 16, 09:16You couldn’t have put it any better Higwe. Everything he did in that instance was in self defence as he was overwhelmed with emotions and had almost kissed death at its gate. Perhaps he got hurt in the process of struggling with the two and had injured himself, this couldn’t have gotten him far enough to escape from their grips leading him to stab them multiple times (very possible) again, he was overwhelmed and wouldn’t think rationally through his actions there and then. I’m shook to think of what might have happened to this young man if his mum hadn’t given him that knife that day. I believe in miracles and this is definitely one.
Kelcy
May 16, 11:56And so that’s how you completely stole the thunder of satan’s lover (Astar’s) kito story and have us all now eating out the palm of ur hands (like your minions that we have come to be)… What a narcissist! Lol
Obiora
May 17, 03:35Bro, please I beg you in the name of whatever is dearest to you, please have the admin delete or remove this comment. This is no longer self defence, but aggravated assault and 2nd degree murder. You literally just told a murder story aka “How to get away with murder”, and granted that this wasn’t premeditated because you were attacked, but the level of viciousness, that is after you stabbed them both, is unacceptable. You can only claim self defence when your attacker has an upper hand, but attacking your attacker when subdued and leading up to death is murder. Depending on jurisdiction, the owner of this page is required by law to report your comment because you may have been involved in a felony crime… So I urge you, please remove this comment. Thank You!!!
Francis
May 18, 09:15If only horror thriller movies played out like this. Stab stab stab and confirm they dead before you run. Make person no block you again as you escape. ?????
Temi
May 21, 06:16This is self defense cause your intentions were clear at first until events turned around and the “trusted” became an accompanice of Kito.
See just forgive yourself the deed has been done it isn’t easy but you have to move on you know, what if the reverse was the case? you did what was best at the moment.
DBS
May 15, 21:07Like someone said, stabbing once was enough you didn’t have to kill them entirely. But no, they would have probably killed you too so it’s self-defense not murder.
Murderer
May 16, 20:50@astar, I didn’t mean to hijack your story. I am new here and needed to pour my heart. I needed to free myself of this guilt. My apologies. Do forgive me.
@higwe, thanks for the kind words. How I wish it will exonerate me from this guilt I feel inside.
I should have let them drown me. I did try to become a straight boy on several occasions because I knew being gay would be the bane of my existence. Now I am a murderer. I am the reason two mothers break down each time the remember their late sons. I fought hard to stay alive because of my mom, I thought then she didn’t deserve to bury me at my prime. How selfish that thought seems now. Killing 2 young boys just so a boy can be alive.
If only I wasn’t gay! If only I didn’t download grinder that cursed night. If only I wasn’t promiscuous.
I didn’t further my degree because I was scared of running into their ghost. I am scared of everything.
I should have run away after stabbing them once like some of u said. Many thoughts were going through my mind then. I was afraid of them coming after me and my family. I knew they wouldn’t let go until they have my head. I could feel the hate in their mind and My house is just few streets away from where all that happened. It was the only thing that could calm my body and soul then.
I am not in any way trying to justify my crime. I am a murderer and a murderer I will always be. This is against everything my parents taught me. “do not soil your hands with blood”, they always say.
I think is time to end it all. My 21 birthday is in next month and I have always dreamed that I will die on my 21. I feel relieved sharing this here. I needed someone to tell me the hard truth which some of u did. I am ready now.
A big thank you to @Higwe. I don’t know why I feel so indebted to you. I have seen few of your comments here and the reminded of the man I would have become someday. Nobody has ever made me laugh in months now but you. Thank you.
Thank you to everyone and to the owner of this website. I will keep reading u guys till my birthday when I will be no more.
I know you all care. For that I am thankful.
Let no one try to reach me through my email. It’s fake. I love u all. I have to do this.
I can’t stand my parents preaching and prayers every morning. A murderer doesn’t deserve to be under their roof.
Bye u all.
PS
It wasn’t any of your comments that pushed me to it. It has been decided in my mind for a long time now. Let no one feel guilt about their comments. Let no one accuse another because of their opinion. The beauty of life lies in our difference.
Higwe
May 17, 12:52If you kill yourself , then you’re the biggest loser of all time .
Everything you’ve been through … everything you’ve fought for up to this moment , will be for naught.
No one here has a perfect life .
Some people are living with HIV …
Some are estranged from their families and loved ones ….
Some are finding it difficult to keep a relationship ….
Some are yet to reach their full potentials …despite working so hard .
Are you worse than all these people ?
Why are you giving up so easily ?
If you knew your life would come to this , why didn’t you let them drown you that day ….at least you would have gone out as a hero ….
If all the afromentioned can still find some positivity in their lives and continue to hang on , who are you to decide to take your life ?
At 20 , you’re still a kid ….
You do not know half the thing the world has in store for you .
Don’t ever entertain the thought of Killing yourself .
Don’t let the evil souls of those two boys win .
Don’t !
Francis
May 18, 09:27Dude forget what people are saying biko. You did nothing wrong. It was kill or be killed (whether then or later on in life)
You just need to see a therapist to get over this
DexStar
May 16, 22:36Goodness! What did I just read? Gosh! How do I cope with this haunting comment? Murderer, for the sake of everything you hold dear, seek help and heal. Whatever it is you intend to do is not the solution, that’s the coward’s way out I’m sorry to say… Think about your Mum, you have no idea how many people you’ll hurt. I don’t even know what to say to deter you. I pray God touches your heart and give you reasons to LIVE.
Mafiaso
May 16, 23:03I don’t really know why a lot of people take the easy way out (suicide)these days, which is certainly not the best . Time they say softens anger ,please cast your fears upon the Lord,I am sure you will be comforted.
You didn’t bring yourself into this world, therefore have no right to terminate your life. Remember, eventually you will account stewardship to the Lord some day. A lot of people find meaning in life, just because of you.
Aster
May 17, 00:02You survived death once, survive it once again. See, this guilt threatening to snuff life out of you is not different from those two monsters that tried to murder you once.
Face it and see the end of it. Don’t allow it to see the end of you.
Tman
May 17, 03:11Oh my goodness! I don’t know to type in reply @murderer. See, forget what anyone has told you here, you went on a blind date which is as normal as the sky being blue. However just as straight people could also encounter dangerous lots in form of pyschos, serial killers or rapists, you met people who’ve decided to kill you for what you didn’t make yourself into.
You had only one choice – survive or be killed – and you obviously chose the right one no matter how heinous it seems.
The fact you’ve lived two years after that life-changing experience speaks more about you, don’t let it weigh you now. Ending your life doesn’t end the pain, at least not for others. Think of your mom, your siblings and friends. Think of your legacy. And if it comes to, think of the futility of your action.
You’re strong, man, you are. Suicide should never be an option. We’re plagued already as a community, we shouldn’t be adding more vices to our already eerie cabinet. If it’s psychological or financial support, you could indicate and we’d be so glad to help.
Have a rethought, please. ❤️❤️
Delle
May 17, 07:55PP, please can Murderer be contacted? Like ASAP!?
There’s only very little words can do. Let us reach out to him, please.
CHUCK
May 17, 11:26what if it’s a troll/ attention seeker?
Oludayo
May 17, 22:04What if it isn’t?
The stakes are too high
PHOENIX
May 17, 20:48I saw an inscription on Instagram today and you came to mind @murderer(self defender) . It reads “You didn’t come this far to only come this far”
As you defended your life that faithful day, defend it more vigorously now.
If you give up now, those two died for nothing and your life is not “NOTHING”. THEY DIED SO YOU CAN LIVE. SO LIVE FOR THE LIFE YOU DEFENDED DEARLY THAT DAY.
Live for all your love ones. Live for the two lives lost, Live for posterity sake.
I know you feel guilt and I can only imagine what you going through. If you’re a Christian, Muslim or any other religion pray and let your anchor hold in this storm.
Ask God for forgiveness and forgive yourself too.
It shall be well.
I know these are just words but I hope it helps. You arenot alone.
@Astar thankful for your life.
Astar
May 19, 20:46Thank you PHOENIX.
The deafening silence from murderer’s end is quiet unsettling.
Can you assure everyone that you are okay if you are reading this?
Temi
May 21, 06:05Thank God it wasn’t more than what you narrated. May God reward these Kitos in their own coin the pain inflicted on gays are just too much.
Orobo Hunter
May 21, 08:42My lord..
What did i just read?
Murderer, if you can read this, please reach out.. You need help. Please, don’t take your life. Please.