Trajectory Of Four Briton In The Jungle: The Mournful End!

Dr Ias Squire

Ebenezer Adurokiya was at Enekorogha community in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State where four British missionaries and social workers were kidnapped on October 13, leading to the death of Dr Ian Squire and the release of three others – Dr David Donovan, Shirly Squire, Alanna Carson after almost a month at the kidnappers’ den.

Ijaw natives of Enekorogha and other neighboring communities in Burutu Local Government Area of Delta State last week dipped into deeper mourning over the death of Dr. Ian Squire. The 57-year-old British optician was said to be on his fourth visit to Burutu, on health charity work, as a Christian missionary. A day to return to the United Kingdom (UK) from the creeks in preparation for next February’s medical outreach already earmarked for 100 patients diagnosed with eye problems, Dr Squire and David Donovan, Squire’s wife, Shirley and Alanna Carson slipped into the murderous hands of suspected militants on October 13.

For almost a month, the quartet were in the gulag of the militants said to have been masterminded by an ex-militant under the Amnesty payroll, identified as Karowei Pere Gbakumor who’s currently under the trail of security agents.

Karowei, as gathered, hails from one of the neighboring villages in Burutu, but as a marauder, he had set up a militant/kidnap camp deep inside the creeks where untold vices were being daily perpetrated. A militant camp could boast of no fewer than 30 hemp-smoking militants who train daily, gather intelligence on high profile personalities with a view to abducting their unsuspecting victims, a kidnap victim and journalist, Chief Monday Whisky, had told Tribune.

It was gathered that after the kidnap of the four British Good Samaritans as it were, the marauders allegedly requested a ransom of N10 million before they would effect the release of the quartet. Hours became days and days became weeks as security agents kept combing the creeks for possible rescue of the Britons with no success.

However, about the fourth week on November 6, their eventual release was announced by the British Foreign Office after much synergy with the Nigerian authorities, but Dr Squire, a man who was said to have abandoned his thriving practice in Shepparton Surrey to offer humanitarian services to indigent Ijaw natives, did not survive it as he was pronounced dead! Details of what led to the death of Dr Squire, the founder and chairman of the Christian Charity Mission for Vision that birthed in 2003, in the hands of the hoodlums are still sketchy.

The kidnap of the four Britons sadly reminds one of the throes of the colonial era when Christian missionaries found their ways to native Africa with the light of the gospel interspersed with humanitarian activities as it were to salvage the so-called ‘dark continent’ from gross darkness! But efforts of the early missionaries were not without their repercussions as many died in the hands of ignorant and unfriendly natives while others were victims of diseases and infections.

It’s rather unfortunate that decades after the cold blood of white missionaries watered the birth of Christianity with its attendant civilization in African soil, a post colonial killings propelled by existential permutations among loafers and harbingers of horror in the creeks have become rife since the emergence of militancy over 10 years ago.

State of Enekorogha community

A journey to Enekorogha community on a speed boat on river from Warri will take about three hours, while on road through Ughelli to Burutu river jetty, is about two hours. From the jetty, one is expected to board a speed boat across the river to the community. Invariably, since there’s no bridge built across the river, the only means to finally access Enekorogha is either through the river from Warri or from Burutu jetty is through a boat. Inside the community, no road exists. So, what could have propelled the Britons to berth at Enekorogha community instead of a rocking Burutu township, the local government headquarters with tarred road constructed by the government of Chief James Ibori? Sunday Tribune gathered during the visit with three other journalists to the agrarian creek by road from Warri on November 10 that no health centre, by whatever nomenclature it could be labeled, existed in the village before the coming of the charity workers. How the whitemen located the community is still shrouded in mystery, a situation making the people to often conclude that it was the benevolence of the Supreme Being. Dr Donovan and his wife, Shirly, arrived the country about 14 years ago to render helps to indigent folks in rural parts of the Niger Delta under a foundation called the New Foundations. Their sojourn and acceptance in Enekorogha community and environs underscored the dearth of basic social amenities unavailable in the bucolic environment. Donovan’s crew made incursion into the community liberating pregnant women who had hitherto been dependent on local means of delivery or were ferried across the river on a boat for onward vehicular movement to Burutu, a journey that could last an hour and costs a fortune. The same applied to ailments and sicknesses. Traditional means were basically the health trademark of the people. However, with the advent of the Christian aid workers, a clinic was built and equipped with modern gadgets and health outreaches on various health challenges were carried out on folks in the community as well as other adjourning ones free of charge almost biennially. Eyeglasses, check-ups, diagnoses, drugs and even minor surgeries were carried out on patients each time the Britons were in  the community. They also usually returned from Britain with medical experts on any particular area of concern in the community.

As the population of beneficiaries increased, four natives, Sunday Tribune was reliably informed, were taken abroad by the missionaries and trained in specific medical lines to up the work force and had been adding value to the health initiative in the community since their return.

Besides, the clinic, as gathered, has no fewer than 15 locals working with the Britons and earning salaries. The Ijaw community, to the obvious envy of others around the area, has begun to enjoy gradual development through the opening up of the land. The white men had built a bungalow flat with a boys quarter directly behind a primary school near the cosy forest. There are two schools, Enekorogha Grammar School and Pramode Primary School, in the community, and these missionaries were said to have often strolled into the classrooms at their leisure to tutor the pupils.

State of the white men’s lodge

Few days after the death of Dr Ian and release of the three others, the angry villagers embarked on a procession to mourn Dr Ian and the exit of others from the community. In their local dialect, both old and young, men and women, sang a soulful and elegiac rendition translated to mean: “Ian’s death is a painful death to the entire community.” An old woman, returning from the farm on a wooden boat, disembarked from the boat and began to roll on the river bank beside her bunch of banana in hot tears. From one end of the community to another, Sunday Tribune followed the mourning procession of disillusioned members of the community. The procession made its way to the clinic and thereafter to the lodge where David Donovan, Squire’s wife, Shirley and Alanna Carson were abducted midnight of October 13. Painted with green emulsion paint, the structure of the lodge betrayed a typical simple European style of constructing a bungalow putting factor of enough ventilation into consideration. The structure, sandwiched in-between a block of classrooms of Pramode Primary School and a thick forest, is similar to those obtainable in the University of Ibadan staff quarters built during the colonial era. A few domestic staff – cleaners, cooks and others –  were at the boys quarters. A maid, who spoke to Sunday Tribune privately, was in the main house. The compound, with greenly palm trees, banana, other fruits and flowers, has an average fence with no barbed wire to prevent intruders.

One of the local helping hands, Mrs Rose Peter, led the journalists during the community’s mournful procession into the apartment. The marauders obviously forced their way into the main door of the apartment after capturing Dr Donovan. Donovan was said to have responded to the sudden stop of the Lister Generating Set that was in use the fateful night, by going outside to find out what had halted the engine. There, he was grabbed at gunpoint by one of the intruders and forcefully led back to the main building. The hoodlums then broke into two other rooms, ransacked them and dragged a couple and one other into the dead of the night, thereafter into a waiting boat in the large river and ferried them to their camp far into the creeks. Laptops, traveling bags and other valuables of the missionaries were still intact as of the time of the visit.

Mrs Peter, who witnessed the abduction, further related the story graphically to Sunday Tribune as follows: “That very night, I was with them in this camp sleeping in one of the rooms of the boys quarter. All the women were together in another building that was newly built (the boys quarter) while the men were in the former one.

“All of a sudden, in the night around 12:45a.m, one of the women woke up and told me that Rose, wake up, something has happened! I was so scared that as I got up, I said, ‘what’s happening?’ She said ‘they’ve stolen our white men, how and why?’ So, we all now ran to this place (the main building); when we got here, there was no one. We couldn’t find any of them.

“We only found one person left while the four were gone which are: Dr Donavan and his wife Shirley, Dr Ian Squire and Ms Alanna Carson, who was to visiting  Nigeria for the first time to help us in the eye camp; they whisked them away.”

Perhaps much more graphically, the house-maid who spoke with Sunday Tribune exclusively in pidgin, hurriedly and inconclusively said:  “They came inside and one “Enokora” boy show everything for them, explain everything for them for them to come inside and that same Enokora boy off the lister generator, when dey off the lister, everybody say ‘ah wetin happen na?’ The master of the Lister say make him rush go outside go check in case anything happen or occur to the lister, when he went to see it, they nabbed him, he shout Jesus and they grab him so in the place, he nor gree, so they force him to come to the door of the house, so they entered and destroyed the front door of the house.”

Mrs Peter added that the fifth expatriate in the third room of the apartment escaped as it did not occur to the marauders that someone was inhabiting the room and perhaps for their hurriedness. So, shortly after the hoodlums left with the quartet, the escapee was quickly evacuated to the relevant authorities for safety.

How Dr Ian, others rejected local security

Perhaps if Dr Ian and his team from the UK had not snubbed protection from the locals or even soldiers, the story would have been different. It is a well known fact that expatriates plying their trades in the Niger Delta region do so under the prying eyes of hired law enforcement agents, especially members of the Joint Task Force. Having known the volatile security situation in the region, how come Dr Ian and others did not have armed security agents providing security for them? This question was posed to the chairman of the community, Comrade Ogobiri.

According to him, “When Dr Donavan and his crew located the village as suitable to establish their foundation, we provided a local security for them, but because you know, they are missionaries they believe in God, there was a time they came to us and said ‘no, forget about this local security and whatever, nothing with happen to us.’

“Nobody in this community believed that this would ever happen because they have been with us for over 10  years and nothing like this has never happened before.

 “We were all living very freely and since after the Amnesty programme, we know that there is no criminal activities like kidnapping in this region, Karowei himself is a partaker of the Amnesty programme, he is receiving his salary from the government and we all believe that nothing of such was going to happen to us.”

Drs Ian, Donovan and others usually visited the community two or three times a year to administer medication. Their presence in the village last October before the kidnap incident was actually to sensitize the community and others around the area to prepare their wards with eye problems for treatment next February. They were said to have already gone round, tested and penciled in 100 patients for treatment in February. They had reportedly planned to leave for the UK on October 14 the following day, when Karowei and his gang invaded their lodge on the even of their departure and whisked them into the woods for ransom, leaving the community in disarray. Sadly, notorious Karuwei has God his aged father benefiting from the humanitarian services being rendered by Dr Ian and co at different occasions, it was gathered.

State of the New Foundations clinic

Since the kidnap and death of Dr Ian and the eventual release of the three others, the clinic known as New Foundations Clinic built and well-equipped with modern gadgets has been under lock and keys. Gloom literally envelops the entire space! The colorful clinic building stands conspicuous in the midst of shanties built with straws and mud belonging to the locals. From the sliding glass door and windows, one could sight the relics of hardworking social workers: traveling bags, stethoscopes and other medical instruments in one of the rooms while at the waiting room, colorful chairs for patients and children lie idle, denied the warmth of patients.

Testimonies of beneficiaries of the clinic

Sunday Tribune sought audience with both old and young, male and female, during the procession on what they had to say about Dr Squire, whom they fondly call Dr Ian, and the exit of the rest crew of the New Foundations from the creeks.

Chairman of Enekorogha community, Comrade Michael Ogobiri, described the incident as having returned the area to the dark ages of sicknesses and diseases.

“My community is not happy and you see all of us here in black, mourning Dr Ian because of what Karowei has done and it’s a great loss to us. Ian was part of us. We’ve lost a passionate father, brother and friend.

“We are also appealing to the federal, state, and local governments to make sure that Karowei is brought to book because the loss of Ian has led to the closure of this clinic.

“The clinic you are seeing here, this is where they do the eye section and other medical care and everything is shut down because of that singular reason.

“The people of Enekorogha community are expressing themselves to the entire world that the loss of Ian is a great pain to the sons and daughters of Enekorogha.

“Other foreigners that may want to come to this area to help us may not do so because of what is happening  and you can see that our community we don’t have any hospital.

“There is no government facility in this community. No good school, no tarred road. We have been marginalised in  terms of development but these people are God-sent, they came all the way from UK, we didn’t struggle for it; they came to us, built this place and gave us free treatment and we believe this is a gift from God and somebody from nowhere has come to kidnap that blessing and we are expressing ourselves today because we are not happy and we will continue to do so until this idiot (Karowei) is apprehended.

“We have almost 10-15 boys working here who were also trained overseas.”

A teenager and pupil of Enekorogha Grammar School, Timothy, said: “we are suffering a lot because of the abduction of the white men because the white men were giving us many treatments.

“We need the white men to come back so that they should give us more treatment again and we also need more hospitals in this community.

“Help us tell the government to bring more hospitals to the community so that they will help the students in the community.”

An average mother, Mrs Deborah Inakposia, who had enjoyed safe deliveries of her babies from the clinic, disclosed in pidgin that: “when I got pregnant, I come here for treatment, if I sick, I come here, them go give me tablet; they’ll take care of me until I give birth. We don’t pay. We don’t know how we are going to do now, we are suffering now.”

Jethro Etonwe testified of how the white men operated on his son to save his life without any form of payment. Speaking in pidgin, he said: “This person na my pikin, wen dem even do the operation wen d pikin be six years old, now the pikin don be 12 years and dat one na free; dem no even take N5 from my hand.

“We don’t have another clinic again so we want make dem come back to us or make them bring another one so that dem go fit save our pikin free.”

An elderly man and activist, Comrade Andrew opined that the people are currently in a deep distress over the death of Dr Ian and the relocation of others back to the UK after their release.

According to him, “We are in a big distress now; we don’t know what to do especially we the family heads. For us to now carry our patients to even Bomadi cost us a lot and we’ve been giving free treatment since 2007 till date and now that they have closed this clinic and you see, it’s not all of us that are buoyant to carry our patients to Bomadi and its even the nearest place.

Displaying his pair of freely-given medicated glasses, Comrade Andrew said: “I got these glasses I’m wearing from here (clinic). Before, to see far was a problem. I was suffering from short sightedness but for the provision of these glasses I think I’m very free to do my activities.

Dr Ian Squire’s close friend, Paul Allan, as reported by BBC Online, described Ian as a ‘good friend’ and a ‘very straightforward, nice, gentle guy.’

“I just can’t believe what’s happened. I find it shocking to believe for someone who has gone out to  do good in the community overseas that that the action has cost him dearly.

“It has cost him his life. It is beyond belief. It’s a sign of this day and age, but he wasn’t concerned about that. He just wanted to go out and help people in less fortunate situations than ours,” Allan enthused.

Our demands – natives

Beyond the teardrops and wailing orchestrated by the tragedy, the people of Enekorogha are aware that they have to move on with life. But they wished the survivors – Dr Donovan, his wife and other members of the New Foundation could forgive the wickedness of the harbingers of death and plan a return to the community in the spirit of humanity, which in the first instance, propelled their humanitarian activity.

Although, the hunt for the killer of Dr Ian by the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team led by Assistant Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari has cost the life of Sgt Lanre Sanusi and one of the kidnappers, a few other members of the Karowei gang have been caught while security agents are still on the trail of the ring leader. However, the people are saying everyone involved in the death and kidnap must be bought to book to serve as a deterrent to others who abhor good life and humanity.

The people are also concerned about what becomes of the medical facilities left behind by the tragedy and what becomes of their health and good work started by the missionaries. Governor Ifeanyi Okowa, they insisted, must find a solution around the puzzles to save the people of the area from health issues.

“We are appealing to the government, to Okowa to come to our aid. As rightly mentioned by the chairman, since all arms of the government have been informed about the situation, we are appealing to them to come to our aid and enable us get good health and more so we are appealing to the outside world particularly UK that we are not happy over this system so they should be able to come back to us after this time. They’ve been cordial with us, we want them to come back to us,” Pa Andrew, an octogenarian, pleaded.

Speaking for the children and school pupils, little Timothy, pleaded thus: “We need the white men to come back so that they can give us more treatment and we also need more hospitals in this community. Please, help us tell the government to bring more hospitals to the community so that they will help the students in the community.”

Meanwhile, after the killing and arrest of some of the criminals suspects involved in the kidnap saga, youths of Enekorogha have taken their destiny into their hands as they have formed a formidable vigilance group to repel threats from fleeing Karowei and his gang to annihilate the community.

Commanding Officer, Sector 1, Operation Delta Safe (OPDS), Col. Alhassan Grema, who was on a gunboat patrol to the community last Tuesday, assured the people of adequate security, but added that the kidnap kingpin and other remnants, who are still in their midst in the creeks, must be smoked out of their hiding place.

What eventually becomes of the New Foundations clinic and lodge in the absence of Drs David Donovan, Ian Squire and his wife, Shirley as well as  Ms Alanna Carson and others amid a possible relapse into ‘darkness’ is left to the imagination!

This article was originally published by Sunday Tribune newspaper in Nigeria on 19 November, 2017.

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