How Organ Harvest Overturns Kuru Community

Picture source: Family of victims

I walked into the street of Dankarang in Kuru, Jos South, cautious, almost tiptoeing –journalists have the oxymoronic personality of being hated and admired simultaneously. There is often the question of why you are requesting this information and whether or not you are an impersonator. Sometimes, they believe you are who you say you are but remember something another journalist wrote that worked against them in a way they find difficult to forgive, leading to the transfer of hostility.

I was in Dankarang to confirm the credibility of an alleged story of one Davou Boyi who set the community on fire by abducting toddlers, poisoning them and harvesting parts of their bodies.

The three kids had gone to St. Ambrose Kibuka Catholic Church, Dankarang on Sunday 20th April. Only one was found alive, two days after they had vanished. When the news spread, the parents were informed of a clairvoyant Fulani man. The Fulani man was contacted. He gave his conditions, after which he lived up to his promise by confirming the kids were still within the community and that the community should ensure no comes into the community or leaves while a house-to-house search is conducted. He promised that the culprit would turn himself in. Lo and behold, Mr Boyi approached neighbours, saying, “I have seen some kids in one of my cars and I am not aware of how they got in.”

According to my informant, three plates of meals were allegedly discovered after a search of Mr Boyi’s house. Two of the meals had been eaten while one was untouched, confirming that he was the culprit behind the horrendous incident –two of the three kids had died while one was still alive.  

The enraged community took laws into their hands, setting Boyi’s three-bedroom apartment ablaze and burning four cars that were parked on the terrace of the house. But the worst was the killing of his sister, Mrs. Laraba Gyang, who the villagers claimed was not only unmoved by the horrific act of her brother but arrogantly defended him. She was killed in front of Dankarang Police Station and burnt with a tire. 

The people of Dankarang never trusted Mr Boyi, a man who gallops as he walks because of his bad legs. It is alleged that there used to be a guy who washed his car. The guy is said to have suddenly vanished one day and was never seen again and a lot of people believe that Boyi has something to do with it. 

Despite the cloudy atmosphere around his reputation, Boyi is known to give loans to people and some of the cars that were burnt in front of his house were securities for loans he has given. It is alleged that, during the search of his house, there were about a dozen refrigerators he had also accepted as securities for loans he had issued.   

Dankarang is a Berom community. Mr. Boyi, a former teacher, is also a Berom man, albeit from another community. The incident, particularly the unaliving of his innocent sister, has strained matters among, not just between Dankarang and Vwang (the Berom ward from which Boyi comes) but the Berom tribe as a whole.

The inability of the Dankarang people to restrain their emotions has led to the killing of an innocent person in a manner that is more horrific than the crime that provoked them.  

Why I Don't Like Boys-Only Schools

AI-generated Photo

I attended two public elementary schools in Jos South. Most elementary schools are mixed, with boys and girls learning next to each other. But when I was about to finish elementary, I started learning that some schools are exclusively unisex. There are examples of such schools in Plateau State. There is the Boys High School Gindiri, Science School Kuru, College of Mary Immaculate Zawan, St. Joseph College Vom and hosts of others. 

Many people assume that Government Technical College Bukuru is a unisex school. It is not. The fact that it is a technical college makes it repellent to girls, but there have always been a handful of girls. The current Principal of the school, Mercy Patu Wambutda, is female, the first woman to hold that position. She is an alumnus of the school and was also the first Head Girl of the school. 

Government Technical College Bukuru is a school that admits students who have already finished the foundation level of secondary in other schools. It used to be the first two years of secondary, but with the 6-3-3-4 system, you have to finish the first three years of secondary to meet the criterion to attend the school, also referred to as Butechs.  

Inter-school sports competitions or Man-o-War jamborees often brought schools together.  It was where I learned the character of Butechs as a school that breeds hard nuts. They would splurge to get attention. For instance, they could go to the extent of eating bread with the polythene plastic covering or pushing three balls of chin chin burns at the same them, making their eyes bulge as if wanting to pop out of their sockets  –they just loved creating a scene. 

The hard-nut character of Butechs’ students did work on our psychologies, making us believe that the school is a-most-attend. So, I wrote the entrance exams to get to Butechs, but I wasn't admitted due to my weak mathematics foundation at the time –it became a silver lining. 

Science School Kuru is one of the most iconic schools Plateau State has ever known. It became very glaring to me when I was a student at the University of Jos –the school would boast of scores of students at the university when other schools had but a handful.

The entry criterion of Science School Kuru is similar to that of Butechs –you must complete basic education. So, while in class two of my secondary, I reluctantly wrote the entrance examination, reluctant because I never liked an exclusive boys' school –it seemed like a prison to me. So, when the results came out, I pretended I hadn’t heard about it. People who saw my name on the shortlist still came to inform me, but I jettisoned the idea of going. When I gave my reasons for refusing to go to Science School Kuru to an old student, he confirmed to me that it was true that they often had to violate the rules by jumping over the fence just to see girls in the host community. 

What is the aim of schools and education? To sum it up, schools are intended to fade the darkness in our minds and provide a good life, position, power and sometimes wealth. Science School Kuru stands along the way to Abuja, the work base of many educated and successful Nigerians. On their way to or from Abuja, some of them will disembark to meet with the local women who sell by the roadside. They give financial donations to the women, admitting the gifts are reparations for the damages done to tubers and livestock, years back. Isn’t this a confirmation that boys' schools are prisons of sorts?

Where I work, there are a couple of men from some of these schools. There are times they talk longingly about their antics during the school days. Some students were daring enough to kill whole goats and take them to the mountains where the goats are grilled and eaten. They would talk about how they often defied the rules to hide cooking stoves in dormitories so that inspectors wouldn't find them. They would talk about how “inmates” would fight ferociously over the illegal meals. When they talk about these things, however, I begin to feel like it may be a prison, but it is an experience that is worth having. I think that I gained and missed something at the same time.