Burning Esther
Moyo Ogundipe, “Life’s Fragile Fictions”
Some of “Upper Italy” has complicated and not very interesting professional reasons for occasionally reading the Nigerian press. It is a humbling experience. Many of the articles are really not quite comprehensible – though they ought to be and, in a tantalizing way, nearly are.
The pieces are crafted with evident care and the influence of the British “quality” press is clear, though strangely mutated: as might be The Daily Telegraph through a profound opium haze or The Economist on psilocybin.
The language is beautiful and nominally English. In a recent article in the Nigerian Independent a politician refers within careful quotes to actions of his opponents as, “barbaric, retrogressing and dastardly wicked.” They oppose a project to construct restrooms intended to “avoid defecation in public places,” apparently preferring a parking lot.
But if the political writing is lively, where our common language is really brought to new levels is on the police blotter. The article reproduced below, from the Sunday Nigerian Tribune of December 4, 2005, reaches heights that are not normally obtainable by mere journalists or mortals of any kind. We regret the grim nature of the news itself, but the treatment is poetry.
Please note that this is not cheap irony. Every part of the story works, it is fully sourced, rich in the right detail and beautiful to read. It even has the form of a classical essay, returning to sum up the news again a second time in the closing paragraph. It is genuinely admirable work.
Man sets lover on fire, killed by same fire
A “lover boy”, Mr. Tom Ekot, an indigene of Emana Ikot Ebo in Uruan Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State and his widow-lover, 50-year-old Mrs. Esther Daniel, were burnt to death, glued to each other, Monday last week.
Sunday Tribune gathered from the surviving son of late Esther, Sunday Daniel (no son of Tom Ekot) that both lovers met their untimely death following a fire ignited intentionally by Tom, who had earlier sprayed Esther with petrol in the latter’s apartment before striking a match stick to complete the job.
It was further learnt that immediately the fire engulfed her, Esther, on the spur of the moment, rushed at her lover, Tom and grabbed him tightly, thus making it difficult for Tom to escape from her grip and from her room.
In the process, the fire on Esther’s body was said to have spread quickly to Tom’s body, leading to the burning and instant death of both live-in-lovers. Investigations revealed that both partners had not recently enjoyed the best of times before that fateful Monday night when Tom suddenly decided to bath his widow-lover with fuel for reasons that only the deceased lovers could have revealed, if either of them were alive to tell the story.
According to Mr. Paul Edet Umoh, an indigene of Mbiakong Village in Uruan and son-in-law of late Esther, some people came to his residence at about 2 a.m. on Monday to inform him that Esther’s residence was on fire. He said he was terribly shocked, on getting to the mother-in-law’s house, to find Esther’s charred remains, lying side-by-side on the floor with the body of her erstwhile lover, Tom, burnt beyond recognition with nothing to salvage from the apartment.
Mr. Umoh disclosed that Esther’s son, Samuel Daniel, lying critically ill now at the University of Uyo (UNIUYO) Teaching Hospital, Uyo, told him that Esther hosted her lover, Tom, on Sunday evening in her apartment and both partners agreed to spend the night together. Discordant tunes, however, surfaced in the thick of night leading to a shouting match between the lovers and eventually culminating in Tom’s final decision to pour petrol on Esther, before setting her ablaze.
Sunday Tribune gathered reliably that attempts by Tom to escape from the fire on Esther’s body were frustrated by the burning Esther, who swiftly dashed forward and held her assailant-lover, Tom, tightly to herself until the fire consumed both of them. At the Divisional Police Headquarters in Uruan Local Government Area, the Divisional Crime Officer, Mr. Momoh Onu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, confirmed the incident, saying that investigation into the case was in progress.
(ends)
(the original is unfortunately no longer available on the Nigerian
Tribune’s server. You’ll just have to take our word for it…)
15.02.06
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