Miss Hope has been a member of Redeemer Hallelujah since she was a kid, her parent and her were the first members when the church was created in the 2000s.
She has always being an inconspicuous member of solemn and resilient character which was not her habit in her childhood days but due to the trauma she went through then only the minister and some old members of the church knew about her.

At the age of 5 years, Hope has been singing along with the choir and everyone in the church knew that she will grow up to be a chorister and a minister of God. Hope being a sharp and beautiful girl then was loved by the pastor and the members of the church because she was outgoing and close to all.

On this faithful day when everything went south, Hope went out with the choir for a ministration at the other side of the town. That was the first time she followed the choir out and because of the trust her parent had in the church they agreed for her to go with them. The pastor's wife was the leader of the team of about 10 choristers and 2 evangelist, on their way to the program their vehicle where boycott and they were kidnapped.

Hope didn't expect such things to happen because of her faith in the Lord but what will happen will always happen. Before they were kidnapped the driver told them that one of the tyre is deflated and that he want to check it. Unknown to them that the driver collaborated with the kidnappers. Parking along the bushy area the driver stepped out of the vehicle with his phone to make a phone call which was to alert the kidnappers to their direction.

Hope was at the age of 10 years old then, she ate a lot on their journey drinking gallon of water to which she had to urinate constantly, on seeing that the driver stopped on the side road she told the pastor's wife that she want to ease her self. So lovely and patient the woman was, she asked one of the choristers to follow her and that's how Hope saved herself and the life of a chorister from a fate worst than death.

Hope got down with the chorister to which her name is Moyobola, Hope so cheerful hop and swing the lady's hand as they went deep inside the bush for her to answer the call of nature. Two minutes after they both left the car the kidnappers came with guns and teargas asking them to close their eyes and raise their hands up, Ojoburuku esu bo mi mu, 5 people lost their lives immediately because they didn't obey the instructions from the kidnappers.

It was Moyobola that heard the sound of gun first, confusingly she ask Hope if she heard the sound of gun and people crying, Hope innocently shook her head and replied that she didn't hear. Not long after she replied with no she heard the sound Moyobola told her about.

Fearfully, they both held each other hands and hid inside a thick bushy area and that was a good idea on their part because immediately they hid they saw the kidnappers dragging bodies inside the bush of which pastor's wife was among the dead ones. Thanks to Moyobola hands covering Hope mouth, her screamed would have called the kidnappers attention to them.

Shivering, they could only support themselves with each other's when they saw the kidnappers butchering human bodies as if they were animals. Hope with a feint heart fainted because her heart couldn't withstand what her eyes saw. With her two eye she saw her church members being slaughtered.

At that moment, Moyobola came to and remember that her phone was in her pocket, with shaking hands she dial her pastor's number but it was not picked up.
Tearfully she re-dial countless time before he picked it up, choking she re-counted what she saw and where their vehicle stopped but nothing to be done because the deeds had already been done. A lot of them has lost their lives and before the rescue mission came the kidnappers had left leaving only 2 survivals.

Hope landed her self in the hospital, the moment she woke up she started screaming and screaming until she was injected with sedatives which gave her peace from her hysterics. Since that day, Hope didn't recovered from that trauma, her high and cheerful voice became silent never to be heard again. She attended a lot of therapy with the hope of getting herself back but all is null.

During the investigation the driver was caught and interrogated for the reason why he did such a thing, his reply was that he was in need of quick cash and since their is no one to give him he had to rely on selling body part to get what he needs that is how the driver greed leads to the death of many and Hope trauma.


© Victoria Damilola

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