Chapter One
Having crossed the Sahara in our beaten up Land Rover we were elated as we approached the small Nigerian town of Kainji. We had decided to honour the hospitality shown to us by one of our girlfriend's fathers who was an engineer on the new dam that was being built on the river Niger. He had sent us a message saying that if we were in the area to look him up and that we could stay with him for a few days. Having lived under canvas for the past few months the prospect of sleeping in a real bed looked very promising indeed.
We were four young men in our early twenties who had self financed this African adventure. Having purchased a ten-year-old Land Rover we had set out and successfully crossed the mighty Sahara Desert. Now here we were in the most northern parts of Nigeria heading towards the new Niger dam! When we first entered Nigeria the border officials had warned us that the country was in the midst of a civil war. The eastern region of this volatile country had broken away and wanted independence from the rest of the country. They were the Ibo tribe and had unofficially called their province Biafra. I had read something about this civil war in our newspapers back home before we set out but I had given it little attention until now. Anyway it was our intention to stay well away from the eastern region and travel down the western side of Nigeria.
With high spirits we headed towards our goal. Our surroundings were sparse compared to the jungle conditions we had experienced earlier when we first entered this country. We found ourselves travelling along a narrow dusty road that seemed to be going nowhere. As we rounded a bend in the road we spotted a large sign, which puzzled us somewhat. It said, "Restricted area for the next 50 miles, authorized personnel only allowed beyond this point. Proceed at your own risk!"
We all wondered what this was all about, there was nothing on the map that indicated why this was a restricted area. I suggested that maybe it was something to do with the dam and the large construction vehicles that would inevitably surround it. Anyway, we had been invited to visit by one of its engineers so with this in mind we proceeded.
After a few more miles into this so called restricted area we came upon an army roadblock consisting of a small group of soldiers. We approached quite slowly as the three or four young soldiers appeared agitated on seeing our vehicle coming toward them. I personally found this scenario quite worrying but my three friends seemed quite bemused by it all. I was driving so I stopped the Land Rover and greeted an army corporal that seemed to be in charge.
He was shaking as he shouted for us to step out of the vehicle. When we did not immediately comply he raised his automatic rifle and repeated his order! On the second request we all got out holding our hands up in a friendly gesture meaning no harm was intended. We were instructed to stand very still and watched as one of the other soldiers requested reinforcements on his radio. By this time I was starting to get quite concerned but still my colleagues found the situation amusing! Oh well I thought, maybe it's me over reacting as usual.
It was not long before a large Bedford army truck came roaring up and several more commando type soldiers alighted from it all shouting and screaming with excitement. On board was a sergeant who immediately assumed command of the situation.
He got the four of us to line up and demanded to know what we were doing in this area? I volunteered to speak for our party and told him we were heading for the dam at Kainji and that we had an engineer friend there who had invited us to visit.
The sergeant demanded to know his name and I told him. He then asked to see our passports and any other documents we had to prove who we were. The sergeant peered at our passports but did not seem to really understand what he was looking at. The visiting pass stamp we had received at the boarder was very faint and quite illegible. He then said something quite extraordinary; he seriously believed we were a band of mercenaries who had come to blow up the dam! With that he ordered his men to search our vehicle. They pulled everything out onto the roadside making one hell of a mess with our belongings. All sorts of things seemed to incriminate us. We had army surplus clothes that we had purchased back in England and we had snorkels and flippers which we used when swimming in northern Morocco.
I tried to explain that army clothes can be purchased quite legitimately in England but the sergeant did not seem to believe me. He and his men had convinced themselves that they had captured a small band of mercenaries. What made things even worse was that I had drawn a skull and crossbones on our external petrol cans. I had done this as a warning for people not to smoke around our vehicle which is what a lot of them seemed to do. I had no idea at the time that the skull and crossbones were the symbol of the mercenary here in West Africa!
Eventually after a lot of excitement and shouting by the soldiers we were told to put all our stuff back in the Land Rover and get into it. The army lorry had a tailboard which had been dropped down and a bren gun was mounted on to it. For those who do not know what that is it is a large machine-gun that sits on a small tripod to steady it when firing. With that we were told to follow the lorry, I gathered if we did not then the soldier manning the Bren gun would open fire.
We went on for some miles before we came to the village of Kainji. Our small convoy drew a lot of attention from the villagers. On seeing us they ran behind our vehicle shouting and jeering. Word had quickly spread that the army had captured some mercenaries. Propaganda was all over the radio in Nigeria and the people were extremely on edge as a result. Eventually we entered a small compound that housed many more Land Rovers, some had been dismantled. I guessed that was for parts as they were quite scarce in Nigeria. A large one-story building stood at the centre of the compound and we were led into it. As we entered I quickly realised it was a police station as I could see several cells over to my left. These cells housed some very scary looking prisoners and on seeing us started to jeer and make obscene remarks.
Thankfully we were not put in these cells but in an empty office with barred windows. There we were left for what seemed like hours. We reflected on our situation, my other collegues Mike, Ian & Roger still remained quite unfazed by our predicament. They were sure that our engineer friend that worked at the dam would vouch for us and things would be just fine! During our discussion we heard a lot of shouting and heel stomping from outside and with that the door opened and in walked a Nigerian army captain. As soon as he walked in he ordered us to stand as we were huddled on the floor due to a lack of chairs.
His opening words were "Who are you people?" He seemed quite jovial but I could sense some kind of menace in his voice.
I decided to speak up for the rest of us and told him "We are tourists pure and simple." I now realize this was a terrible mistake on my part. He went on to say that there was nothing pure or simple about our situation and that the whole village had surrounded the compound we were in and were all trying to catch a glimpse of 'the mercenaries.' Our soldier captors were now acting as our bodyguards trying to keep the crowds outside from entering the compound.
The captain continued to ask questions as to who we were and where we had come from. He was particularly intrigued by our army surplus clothes we had with us. I repeatedly tried to explain how they can be legitamately purchased in England but for some reason he did not believe me! He took the name of our engineer friend and went off to make enquiries about him. I turned to my colleagues and told them I did not like the way all this was going. Again they poo poo'd my fears and told me not to worry but hey, I was a natural worrier and I thought I had good reason too given the situation we found ourselves in.
A little while later the captain returned and was looking very grim faced. He told us that the engineer we mentioned did not work at the dam and now wanted to know what we were really doing in this restricted area. I was dumb struck, our friend had definitely invited us to visit him so where was he now? The mood of the captain had changed for the worst. He was becoming more and more agitated by our insistence that our story was correct. I told him there was nothing else to tell him other than what had already been said. He started to pound the table in front of him and kept screaming that we were liars. I did not know what else to say, well as far as I was concerned there was not anything else. For some inexplicable reason our friend was not working at the dam and now we were in a whole lot of trouble because of it!
The captain called in some of his men and we were bundled out of the office and into one of the holding cells. It was very sparse with little light and we could still hear the jeering and taunts from the other prisoners.
They were shouting things like "Hey white boy, drop your trousers, I want to fuck you!"
Now I was feeling really scared by the situation I found myself in. Mike, Ian and Roger had also lost their air of confidence. We all looked at each other and thought about what would happen to us? We just sat in this nasty little cell not saying very much, we were all in a state of shock by these unfolding events. After about an hour two very burly soldiers appeared at the cell door. Just behind them stood the captain, we all tensed up and awaited our fate.
Having crossed the Sahara in our beaten up Land Rover we were elated as we approached the small Nigerian town of Kainji. We had decided to honour the hospitality shown to us by one of our girlfriend's fathers who was an engineer on the new dam that was being built on the river Niger. He had sent us a message saying that if we were in the area to look him up and that we could stay with him for a few days. Having lived under canvas for the past few months the prospect of sleeping in a real bed looked very promising indeed.
We were four young men in our early twenties who had self financed this African adventure. Having purchased a ten-year-old Land Rover we had set out and successfully crossed the mighty Sahara Desert. Now here we were in the most northern parts of Nigeria heading towards the new Niger dam! When we first entered Nigeria the border officials had warned us that the country was in the midst of a civil war. The eastern region of this volatile country had broken away and wanted independence from the rest of the country. They were the Ibo tribe and had unofficially called their province Biafra. I had read something about this civil war in our newspapers back home before we set out but I had given it little attention until now. Anyway it was our intention to stay well away from the eastern region and travel down the western side of Nigeria.
With high spirits we headed towards our goal. Our surroundings were sparse compared to the jungle conditions we had experienced earlier when we first entered this country. We found ourselves travelling along a narrow dusty road that seemed to be going nowhere. As we rounded a bend in the road we spotted a large sign, which puzzled us somewhat. It said, "Restricted area for the next 50 miles, authorized personnel only allowed beyond this point. Proceed at your own risk!"
We all wondered what this was all about, there was nothing on the map that indicated why this was a restricted area. I suggested that maybe it was something to do with the dam and the large construction vehicles that would inevitably surround it. Anyway, we had been invited to visit by one of its engineers so with this in mind we proceeded.
After a few more miles into this so called restricted area we came upon an army roadblock consisting of a small group of soldiers. We approached quite slowly as the three or four young soldiers appeared agitated on seeing our vehicle coming toward them. I personally found this scenario quite worrying but my three friends seemed quite bemused by it all. I was driving so I stopped the Land Rover and greeted an army corporal that seemed to be in charge.
He was shaking as he shouted for us to step out of the vehicle. When we did not immediately comply he raised his automatic rifle and repeated his order! On the second request we all got out holding our hands up in a friendly gesture meaning no harm was intended. We were instructed to stand very still and watched as one of the other soldiers requested reinforcements on his radio. By this time I was starting to get quite concerned but still my colleagues found the situation amusing! Oh well I thought, maybe it's me over reacting as usual.
It was not long before a large Bedford army truck came roaring up and several more commando type soldiers alighted from it all shouting and screaming with excitement. On board was a sergeant who immediately assumed command of the situation.
He got the four of us to line up and demanded to know what we were doing in this area? I volunteered to speak for our party and told him we were heading for the dam at Kainji and that we had an engineer friend there who had invited us to visit.
The sergeant demanded to know his name and I told him. He then asked to see our passports and any other documents we had to prove who we were. The sergeant peered at our passports but did not seem to really understand what he was looking at. The visiting pass stamp we had received at the boarder was very faint and quite illegible. He then said something quite extraordinary; he seriously believed we were a band of mercenaries who had come to blow up the dam! With that he ordered his men to search our vehicle. They pulled everything out onto the roadside making one hell of a mess with our belongings. All sorts of things seemed to incriminate us. We had army surplus clothes that we had purchased back in England and we had snorkels and flippers which we used when swimming in northern Morocco.
I tried to explain that army clothes can be purchased quite legitimately in England but the sergeant did not seem to believe me. He and his men had convinced themselves that they had captured a small band of mercenaries. What made things even worse was that I had drawn a skull and crossbones on our external petrol cans. I had done this as a warning for people not to smoke around our vehicle which is what a lot of them seemed to do. I had no idea at the time that the skull and crossbones were the symbol of the mercenary here in West Africa!
Eventually after a lot of excitement and shouting by the soldiers we were told to put all our stuff back in the Land Rover and get into it. The army lorry had a tailboard which had been dropped down and a bren gun was mounted on to it. For those who do not know what that is it is a large machine-gun that sits on a small tripod to steady it when firing. With that we were told to follow the lorry, I gathered if we did not then the soldier manning the Bren gun would open fire.
We went on for some miles before we came to the village of Kainji. Our small convoy drew a lot of attention from the villagers. On seeing us they ran behind our vehicle shouting and jeering. Word had quickly spread that the army had captured some mercenaries. Propaganda was all over the radio in Nigeria and the people were extremely on edge as a result. Eventually we entered a small compound that housed many more Land Rovers, some had been dismantled. I guessed that was for parts as they were quite scarce in Nigeria. A large one-story building stood at the centre of the compound and we were led into it. As we entered I quickly realised it was a police station as I could see several cells over to my left. These cells housed some very scary looking prisoners and on seeing us started to jeer and make obscene remarks.
Thankfully we were not put in these cells but in an empty office with barred windows. There we were left for what seemed like hours. We reflected on our situation, my other collegues Mike, Ian & Roger still remained quite unfazed by our predicament. They were sure that our engineer friend that worked at the dam would vouch for us and things would be just fine! During our discussion we heard a lot of shouting and heel stomping from outside and with that the door opened and in walked a Nigerian army captain. As soon as he walked in he ordered us to stand as we were huddled on the floor due to a lack of chairs.
His opening words were "Who are you people?" He seemed quite jovial but I could sense some kind of menace in his voice.
I decided to speak up for the rest of us and told him "We are tourists pure and simple." I now realize this was a terrible mistake on my part. He went on to say that there was nothing pure or simple about our situation and that the whole village had surrounded the compound we were in and were all trying to catch a glimpse of 'the mercenaries.' Our soldier captors were now acting as our bodyguards trying to keep the crowds outside from entering the compound.
The captain continued to ask questions as to who we were and where we had come from. He was particularly intrigued by our army surplus clothes we had with us. I repeatedly tried to explain how they can be legitamately purchased in England but for some reason he did not believe me! He took the name of our engineer friend and went off to make enquiries about him. I turned to my colleagues and told them I did not like the way all this was going. Again they poo poo'd my fears and told me not to worry but hey, I was a natural worrier and I thought I had good reason too given the situation we found ourselves in.
A little while later the captain returned and was looking very grim faced. He told us that the engineer we mentioned did not work at the dam and now wanted to know what we were really doing in this restricted area. I was dumb struck, our friend had definitely invited us to visit him so where was he now? The mood of the captain had changed for the worst. He was becoming more and more agitated by our insistence that our story was correct. I told him there was nothing else to tell him other than what had already been said. He started to pound the table in front of him and kept screaming that we were liars. I did not know what else to say, well as far as I was concerned there was not anything else. For some inexplicable reason our friend was not working at the dam and now we were in a whole lot of trouble because of it!
The captain called in some of his men and we were bundled out of the office and into one of the holding cells. It was very sparse with little light and we could still hear the jeering and taunts from the other prisoners.
They were shouting things like "Hey white boy, drop your trousers, I want to fuck you!"
Now I was feeling really scared by the situation I found myself in. Mike, Ian and Roger had also lost their air of confidence. We all looked at each other and thought about what would happen to us? We just sat in this nasty little cell not saying very much, we were all in a state of shock by these unfolding events. After about an hour two very burly soldiers appeared at the cell door. Just behind them stood the captain, we all tensed up and awaited our fate.