A new investigation has unveiled the shocking details of how small street children create panic and terrorize residents in Calabar.
When Nduma Wilson flagged a cab on December 11, 2015, she had only one thing in mind: how to get to the Federal Psychiatric Hospital, Calabar, where she worked.
However, things would not go as planned. As soon as she paid the driver and alighted from the vehicle opposite the hospital gate, she recalled, two teenagers accosted her, she said
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“Before I knew what was happening, one of the boys kicked me on the ankle and I lost balance and fell to the ground,” she said describing the boys as aged between 12 and 15 years old.
“As I landed on the ground, the other boy snatched my bag and ordered me to surrender my mobile phone. And I did. I lay on the ground helplessly and shouted for help but none of those who were passing by came to my rescue.”
It was after the marauding boys went away with her valuables that a man walked up and told her to thank God she was not molested or injured.
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“I wanted to report the incident to the police but the man who witnessed it all told me I would be wasting my time because the police won’t do anything to the boys,” she said.
The boys who attacked Mrs. Wilson are popularly called“Skolombo Boys”, a name residents of the Nigerian city claim was derived from a Jamaican slang,“Skolo,”meaning,“to obtain.”
An unlucky victim
While Mrs. Wilson was lucky to get away alive, losing her phone, money, jewellery and getting a slight cut on her finger, a pregnant mother, Emilia Etim, died after her ordeal.
Popularly called Nne, the 33-year-old lived along Edgerly Street, Calabar South Local Government Area.
A witness, Usoro Akpanika, said Mrs. Etim had, at about 7 p.m. on a day in March 2015, gone to buy foodstuff at a shop near her home when members of the dreaded gang apprehended her.
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“We were around on the day the boys stormed our area and met Nne on her way to buy foodstuff to prepare the evening meal,” Mr. Akpanika recounted.
“Numbering about eight, the boys surrounded her and demanded she surrender her money and phone but she resisted.
“Before one could count three, a member of the gang, who looked not older than 10, pulled a knife and stabbed the woman on the chest.”
Apparently overwhelmed by the fatal cut, Mr. Akpanika said the woman shouted as she collapsed.
It was Nne’s cry that attracted many residents and caused youth in the neighbourhood to confront the gangsters, who seemed to have gone unchallenged before then, while they terrorized the community.
Seven of the gang members reportedly escaped but one was caught, beaten to a pulp and set ablaze by a mob of local youth. When we visited Nne’s compound, the place was deserted.
Residents and visitors shared bitter stories about the ruthless gang.
A resident of Calabar South, where the street gang is said to have begun, said the name,“Skolombo”was first used after members of the bloody gang, consisting of street boys and girls, numbering over 30, robbed a busy filling station in the area in 2014.
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“It was like a thriller movie,” the resident said. “Over 30 street boys and girls swooped on the filling station in a commando style, shot sporadically into the air and within minutes, collected all the sales proceeds from the cashiers.”
After successfully robbing the station, the source said the leader of the gang, whose face was masked, fired into the air and shouted, “Skolombo” and the gang members responded,“obtain by force,”and they disappeared just as they came.