In 2001, (I have written this story before) there was a National strike that led to schools shut down.
I was in the University of Ibadan at the time, when I left school, I went to Cute Guest House Agbowo at about 11AM, some friends of mine (Laide, the Barman) Lateef a student of

the Polythecnic Ibadan (Saki Campus), Sunday Akinloye (A student of UNAD), Kamoru, A student of the Polythecnic Ibadan, Saki Campus all joined me at the Guest house within an hour.
They were also coming straight from their schools
We didn't plan to meet there
We just did because

students usually hang out there
I was drinking beer and they joined me
We had drunk some bottles when Kamoru, (He is Lateef's friend from school and that was the first day i was meeting him started talking about how he heard the announcement of the strike and how useless the govt

was.
He said he was smoking a particular weed when one of his friends told him they had to pack up and return home the next morning because NLC had called for a national strike.
We all laughed (I had tried smoking marijuana before several times but i usually end up with a blocked

nose and headache. It just wasn't my thing. Secondly, i disliked the fact that we cannot smoke whatever it was in the open. I was 21 years old at the time and the concept of dodging to do anything was appalling to me, so I usually abstain from Marijuana and the likes. I was a

cigarette smoker though and I drank all sorts of alcoholic drinks, sometimes I got drunk and vomited (I like being transparent about how I used to be, there is no point pretending)
Within a minute, Kamoru had produced the unfinished Marijuana from his pocket and also brought some

unrolled weed and rizzla (The stuff marijuana is rolled with from his bag)
The discussion went from "How I heard about the strike" to "Let's go and smoke"
I was not an active participant in the discussion
Left to me, drinking and smoking cigarette was okay but these are my guys

So I drank up and decided to follow them to a "Dagba" that's what we call the spot where marijuana is smoked (I don't know why they call it that)
Laide, the barman had lighter and he was a very good marijuana roller
He was pursuing his admission into The Polytechnic Ibadan as a

part-time student at the time
Sunday Akinloye decided he wasn't going (That guy was older and wiser than all of us. He tasted marijuana only once and stopped)
Myself, Laide, Lateef, Kamoru and one other guy, I think his name was Kinglsley (He joined us while we were talking, he

was a student of the University of Ibadan) set out to and smoke the weed
When we got to the gate of the hotel, my phone rang
It was my mother
She sounded as if she was dying
"Olaolu (Thats the name she calls me) where are you, Yeeeeeh, oooooooooh, aaaaaaaaaaah, come home now, I

am dying, i dont know what has happened to me. Where are you? Come now?"
My mother is a quiet, long-suffering Christian (The CAC trained prayer warrior kind)
She does not throw tantrums and she had no time for drama
I was very alarmed
Our flat was about ten minutes walk from the

Guest House
I excused myself from the smoking expedition and raced home
I got home in about five minutes
I found my mother perfectly okay, singing hymns with her glasses on her nose
It was so off and I got angry
"Mummy, why did you call me?"
"Because I wanted you to come home"

replied my mother
I shook my head, dropped my school bag, changed my clothes and left the house
I was very angry she pulled such a prank on me
I wasn't a child
What if I was schooling abroad or in another city
I felt it was because my school was thirty minutes walk from home

I was just acting my age...
When i got back to Cute Guest House, I saw a crowd
I saw a Police Van
It was not unusual for police guys to do raids around Agbowo and Orogun community
I had escaped being arrested several times because I was always with my student Identity card but...

As soon as I got closer to the crowd, I saw what they were all starring at
Dead bodies
The police officers were taking pictures of the dead bodies
They placed AK-47 on the chest of the dead bodies and were taking pictures of these guys as if they were hardened criminals
It was

confusing
Lateef, Kingsley and Kamoru were the only ones I saw
What happened?
My body was shaking
Death, cold death, is a horrible orientation changer
I heard a whisper behind me
It was Laide, the barman
He said as soon as they got to Dagba where they used to smoke behind the

Guest House, they were gunned down
wow!
"How did you escape?" I asked Laide
Laide said a customer arrived
So he told the guys to go ahead so that he can attend to the customer
When he was done, he left the guest house to join them when he heard gunshots and ran for his life
Hmm

These guys were coming straight from school
They didn't have any weapon on them
When the police officers were done framing them up, they loaded up their dead bodies into the van and drove away
Lateef's family members (especially his younger brother) led protesters to the Guest

house
It was gathered that the landlord association had written to invite the police to the community while we were in school for security reasons
A lot of regrets and tears flowed everywhere
My mother's phone call saved me from untimely death
As I observe the #EndSARS protests

I remember these guys
Long dead and long gone
I know there are ills in our society that needed correcting,
there are laws that needed enforcing and there are criminals that had turned crime into a lifestyle
#SARSCRIMESAGAINSTHUMANITY is real
#sarsbrutality is real
#EndSarsNow is

a dream I also share
I know some criminals are also pushing for #EndSARS
but the majority of those advocating for it are innocent citizens who had become victims of SARS
I had been harassed on Victoria Island on a Sunday afternoon with my family in car before
The officer kept

saying he will take me to SURA
I had no idea where that was
My wife had to use her press Identity card to get them out of our car where they jumped-in to the agony of my little boys at the time
A lot of criminals are in police uniform and the more the government wallowed in

corruption, the bolder they became.
A lot of these police officers are abusing drugs, alcohol and other substances
I was at Paulson Hotel some years ago when a SARS officer shot and killed a set of twins on their birthday
He also shot and killed himself
I suspected the guy was

suffering from PTSD due to his engagement in the insurgency at the time
(I covered the incident as a journalist)
Some are clamoring for Police reform
#EndSARSImmediately
I am saying we can have a better Nigeria
A nation led into righteousness & by justice