Near death on Ikorodu Road July 02, 2007

Hi all,

What I want to tell you about, is my near death experience on the Ikorodu road Lagos.
Now where to start, ok, for those of you who have read this blog, you would know that the last Friday of every month is general cd, the usual crush of people, trying to sign a piece of card that I really don't see the use for, and after that, the exodus back to the mainland to spend the weekend with my parents.
So on this particular Friday I was jejely sitting in the bus going down the Ikorodu road, having suffered the rain, hold up and very interesting smells of my fellow passengers, when suddenly I hear 'pop, pop, pop'. To be honest I thought it was either kids messing around or a car backfiring so I paid no attention to it, suddenly I see people running down the road, and the person next to me shouting that people were firing shots. Me being me, I was like no its just kids..... suddenly more 'pop, pop, pop's', the driver jumped out of the bus, he was halfway down the road nearly back at the third mainland before I could blink, and 3/4's of the bus passengers had jumped out after him and were running back the Ikorodu road.
I at this point crouched down in the bus, I had considered running with the rest but I had my big bag with me, and I was NOT leaving it. Lets be honest, I am not the sort of person who leaves my bag in a fire, and I was not going to do it just because some yahoo's were shooting. Beside I cannot run fast without a bag, so imagine me with this bag, therefore I felt my only option was to remain in the bus. Having said this, I was rummaging in my bag, getting out my videophone to record the moment for you wonderful people. I started bobbing and weaving trying to get some good shots and find out exactly what was going on.
Then out of nowhere, I see the police shooting at the pipes they had put next to the road, and people running round a corner. All of this happened less that 20 feet away from me, and lasted about 10 mins. Was I scared, no; I was more frustrated that I did not know what was going on. Either way the passengers came back, and the driver was finally found already back on the third mainland bridge and we continued on our way.
It turns out that the reason for all the shooting was that two separate gangs of area boys were fighting over control of the bus station around the Palmgrove area, started shooting at each other, and the naija police joined the fray with guns blazing.
Looking back I am terrified that if not for I don’t know what, I could have died, all because I decided to come back to naija for NYSC.