Innocent Blood
"Open the door!" he heard someone shout in Hausa. When the shouts would not stop he rose up in alarm, then quickly did a head count as the other people at home came to the living room to ask what was going on. No one was missing. Who dared to make such a ruckus in the staff quarters of the University of Jos? Who had the audacity? He glanced at his two Corper friends, then strolled to the door, sure that the three of them could defend the home and protect his three sisters and mother. Fifteen minutes later, all three young men were lying on the carpet, their heads severed from their necks. The cuts were neat - yes, they were dead. The mother sat on the floor in shock. Her daughters were crying silently. Her only son was dead. The murderers didn't touch her or her daughters. They came to slaughter only the males, they'd said. The last 25 years rolled by in front of her eyes - his conception, his birth, his growth, his progress from kindergarten , to nursery school, to p...