Bayo Adeyinka

Bayo Adeyinka

It was a Monday morning. My driver at that time, Elijah had picked me early in the morning from where I stayed at Yaba and we were headed to my office at Apapa. This was circa 2009. As soon as I entered the car, I reclined my seat a bit and slept off. I usually loved to get some more sleep before getting to work.

I was half-asleep when I saw a guy carrying a green bag slung around his neck with one hand inside that bag approach my car.

Suddenly, he took out a shotgun and banged on the window of the driver’s side, shouting, ‘Roll down this window’. Thinking we didn’t want to cooperate, he pointed the gun at me from the driver’s side. Everything happened in split seconds and I didn’t even have time to think of any action.

He pulled the trigger. I already stretched my hands as if I could use them to stop the bullets. In that moment, my world stood still. I just heard a loud click. It was unbelievable. The gun jammed. I wasn’t dead. I looked at the guy. He looked at his gun in a weird sort of way with a look of unbelief. He looked at me again. He aimed at me and pulled the trigger the second time. The gun jammed again. Our windows were rolled up but I heard the loud click. No bullet came out.

He took another look at me, put his gun inside his bag and fled. I saw him running and jumping the divider in the middle of the road to the other side.

That is just one of many experiences. I have experienced angelic help when I was in the University for my undergraduate studies. A lady told me God asked her to tell me to give her six people to make up a seven-man team to pray for me daily in my room when I campaigned for elections as the Students Union President.

The day after I won that election, I went to her room to appreciate her and met it locked. Her neighbours said she moved out the night of the election telling them that her assignment was over. I tried to trace her to the Department she told me she was in but no one had ever seen her or heard her name before- except myself and the other six people she prayed with in my room. She told me her was Sister Bola but I believe she was an angel.

Sometimes in 2007/2008, I got a prayer book produced by Dr Olukoya of Mountain of Fire ad Miracles from a customer. I got home that night and went straight to my room with the prayer book. I kept turning to a particular prayer point that was about buying and selling at night markets. The more I tried to move to other pages, the more I came back to this particular prayer point. I prayed vigorously and my wife joined me at a point. Even after we ate that night, I returned to our room and kept on praying about night markets where destinies are exchanged and canceling negative transactions. We slept off eventually.

I was woken up by a gunshot and a shout of ‘Who are you?’ That was around 2am. Then another gunshot. I was scared. My wife was awake also. Thinking we had armed robbers in the compound, we both crawled from our room to the living room where we met my sister-in-law also lying on the floor. She had left her room also. She was staying with us then.

My sister-in-law was shaking like a leaf. “I saw it”, she said. “You saw what?”, I asked her. She whispered that she saw a creature that looked feminine staring at her from the window of her room. The weather was hot and she had parted the blinds so some fresh air could come into her room. She said she woke up suddenly with her hair crawling and when she opened her eyes, a creature was staring at her from her window. She was transfixed in fear until she heard a gunshot and then she ran to the living room.

There was another gunshot again. This time, I heard the voice of my neighbour, a Customs Officer very clearly. He was the one releasing the gunshots and asking whoever was in the compound the questions.

The Customs Officer lived in the Boy’s Quarters with his family and was on patrol on Lagos-Ibadan expressway that night. His wife had come out of their room to use the bathroom during the night when she saw the same creature my sister-in-law saw. She ran back inside and called her husband. The husband, thinking there were robbers in the house, came stealthily and fired gunshots after seeing the creature peeping into my sister-in-law’s window.

After a while, I heard a thud- my neighbour jumped the fence- and there was a chase around my flat. I could see the shadows of both of them running around- the compound was well lit. After some time, the Customs Officer caught this creature whose hair was plaited with wool and stood on her head while she had on a very filthy wrapper. She had a huge sore on her leg and carried a ‘Ghana must go’ bag.

My neighbour, still thinking they could be many, grabbed this creature as he beat her and asked, “Where are the others?”. Till today, I cringe when I remember the sound of that creature and how she spoke. Her voice was so ethereal and sounded like something from horror movies. She spoke in smattering Yoruba that sounded a bit like someone from one of the neighbouring Yoruba-speaking countries.

To my shock, when she was asked what she was doing in our compound, she answered in Yoruba, “Mo wa ra’ja ni” meaning “I came to the market to buy some things”. My neighbour kept on asking if our house looked like a market and she kept insisting that she came to the market to buy some things. I remembered instantly the prayer point I prayed over and over just a few hours ago as I shuddered. In her ‘Ghana must go bag’ were filthy bundles of N5, N10 and N20 notes. Very filthy and smelly notes.

I heard all the conversation from where I was on the floor in my living room. My wife and sister-in-law are my witnesses. We couldn’t go out because we were enveloped in fear that night. My neighbour flogged the creature continously. When it was around 5am, the creature started begging that the day was breaking and it had to leave. She was pleading to be let go. Not seeing any reason to hold on to her any longer, my neighbour took her wrapper and the Ghana must go bag with the money and after another round of flogging, released the creature.

I later came out when the creature left and together with my neighbour we burnt the wrapper and the bag containing the money. I couldn’t share the previous details with my neighbour because I doubt if he would understand. He kept on wondering how the creature gained access to our house as the fence was high and our gates always locked. He couldn’t understand the ‘market’ talk also.

I have so many experiences of the supernatural or the miraculous to share. There are things happening way beyond your logic or human reasoning. The supernatural points directly to the fact that there is more to what we see or know. The Supernatural points us to an upward direction and draws us to a greater knowledge of God and our Maker. You may try to explain it away. Your explanation or rationing does not reduce the potency of its validity. It rather questions your very limited understanding and awareness.

So I won’t join to mock the experience of others as shared through their testimonials. Testimonies are very personal and they are shared to encourage others. A testimony is also a strong weapon in battle. Check Revelations 12 verse 11. That is why there are constant attempts to weaken and make mockery of testimonies so as to render that weapon ineffective. A very shrewd strategist will make sure he renders you ineffective by condemning the efficacy of the weapon in your hands.

I don’t have any issue with any apron-wearing believer. John the Baptist wore camel-skin, leather belts and had a weird diet of locust and honey. Yet, Jesus didn’t have any issues with him. Do we share the same commonwealth? Do we believe in the most important aspects of our faith- that Jesus died and rose again, faith in the saving grace of our Lord and trust in the blood of Jesus for the forgiveness and remission of sins? As long as that is a yes, every other thing is immaterial. I refuse to major in the minor.

Just a quick word for those who should know better but are quickly carried away by fads to point fingers and join others in pulling down their father’s house: you’ve been inducted into the ministry of the accuser of the brethren. It is better to heed Gamaliel’s advice in Acts Chapter Five: “Hands off these men! Let them alone. If this program or this work is merely human, it will fall apart, but if it is of God, there is nothing you can do about it—and you better not be found fighting against God!”

*Bayo Adeyinka is a banker, public affairs analyst and social entrepreneur.