The Secret Killer

DEDICATION

This book is dedicated to all men and women, and boys and girls who have gone and are going through modern-day slavery.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Born in Lagos and raised in Abia and Imo State, Nigeria, Faith Ozioma Peter Diji (née Onumara) hails from Imo State and is joyfully married to Prince Chukwuemeke Peter Diji from Delta State. She is an Education English graduate of University of Nigeria, Nsukka, as well as a graduate in English of Alvan Ikoku College of Education, Owerri.

Faith Ozioma Peter Diji is the Managing Director and Content Developer of Faxyman Concepts International. Experienced in various spheres, she is a committed writer, speaker, content creator and editor, certified digital marketer, and an entertainer with a passion for applying herself. She has undergone lots of training, one of which is The Art of Broadcasting: Mind, Media, and Money from One-23 Communications. She was a student at PEFTI Film Institute, Lagos, and has worked for Cool FM (Steam Broadcasting and Communication Limited). Faith was appointed Health, Safety, and Environment (HSE) secretary of the company during the tenure and assisted Doctor Julz in her midday radio show on Nigeria Info. At one time, she ventured into teaching. Faith has several screenplays to her credit.

Her purpose is to use her talents and skills to add value to lives.

WHY I WROTE THE SECRET KILLER

Coming from a polygamous family, I was so eager to become successful in life, particularly to become rich; that was my intention when I left home for Lagos at age 17. I wanted to deliver my mum from the situation that took hold of her at the time. I lived with my cousins while I studied acting at PEFTI Film Institute, which was at Charity bus stop, Oshodi, Lagos. Against my father's will, I chose this vocation rather than pursue a tertiary education.

After I completed the three months' programme at the institute and when the time came to take up acting roles, my cousins threw me out of their house for reasons unknown to me to date. They told me to leave the house before they returned from work the following day. That was how I moved house to my uncle's at Coker in Lagos. I had turned 18 then.

My uncle added insult to injury. He cursed me at every turn of a rookie mistake I made. It was written all over his face, and his reaction confirmed that he hated me with so much passion. I was hopeless. I practically lived in the shadow of my seemingly forlorn dream. My mind was highly devastated. I felt useless. This thought of emptiness crushed my esteem. And I became a victim of mental slavery.

I managed to go to the National Arts Theatre once in a while with the little money I had, but I hardly could do something worthwhile there.

I moved on to stay with other uncles and aunts of mine, but the nightmare recurred. My mind was messed up again and again.

Finally, as I was encouraged by my mum, I completed my tertiary education after returning to my dad, as did the proverbial prodigal son. Amid the troubles, I suffered so many heartbreaks and got incessantly angry. Later on, I met my husband, and we got married. God used him to mould me into becoming who He wanted me to be. It wasn’t an easy task. I began to see the purpose of the gift of writing I had. I realised that my writing is to be used to emancipate and edify people just as God had helped and set me free. And this was the reason why I wrote ‘The Secret Killer’.

This book exposes modern-day slavery and its effects on our minds and society. Everything in ‘The Secret Killer’ is a gift from the Lord. I claim none.

I hope this book bless your life.

I ACKNOWLEDGE YOU

How does one say thank-you when there are too many people to thank? For the sake of emphasis, I shall name a few. I am grateful to everyone who has had a positive influence on my life. To those who have done me wrong, you have just given me a story to tell. Thank you.

Special appreciation goes to God Almighty, my Father and Lord Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit, without whom I am nothing.

To my dearest husband, Prince Peter Diji, who appreciated my gifts and has always supported me—thank you, Nkem. What others despised, he took, cleaned up, and the gold in me was unearthed. No man compares with my husband. He is my coach, a driving force, and a capable manager.

Thanks to my wonderful dad, Rev. (Dr) Chima Cyril Onumara, for believing in me and supporting my dreams to the limelight. I am grateful, dad.

I appreciate my sweet mum, Mrs Royal Enoh Ukpong Onumara, for believing in me right from the beginning. Today, the dream is a reality. I am grateful. Thank you, mum.

I acknowledge my lovely siblings—Victory Nkechinyere Onumara, Kingsley Chiemeka Onumara, and Oscar Bassey Chidera Onumara, including my unique sisters-in-law—Anwuli Rich Ikegwu and Nwanne Maryjane Diji.

To Bishop David Oyedepo, Archbishop John Osa-Oni, Pastor Nehemiah Anderson, Oluwasegun Ikuforiji, Teslim Sanni Anibire, Ayodeji Agboola, Professor Chris Ogbechie and Lady Rose Ogbechie, Architect Bola Babaleye, Pastor Hilary Eledu, Mrs Oghale Eledu, Pastor Tunde Usidame, Mr Tony Okoh, Ms Akon Nduonofit, Mrs Soibi Oku-Ukpong, Engr Nket Oku-Ukpong, Mrs Chinwe Chimah, Mrs Chinwe Akinwande, Mrs Oluwateye Olatunji, Anselem Nkoro, Gabriel Nkoro, Ms Agatha Ashiedu, Pastor Mrs Faith Usman, and Kelvin M. Udoh Esq., thank you.

To everyone who has played a crucial role in making this book a reality, you are not forgotten. Thank you. I love you all.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DEDICATION

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

WHY I WROTE THE SECRET KILLER

I ACKNOWLEDGE YOU

WORDS OF GREAT MEN

LET'S TAKE A STAND AGAINST MODERN-DAY SLAVERY

IMPACT OF THE ACT

1. THE NEW ERA: SLAVERY OR FREEDOM?

2. The Sore

3. The Journey

4. The Trauma

5. Realism

6. The Episode

7. Avenger

8. The Heart against the Head

9. Precision

10. Anecdote

NOTABLE LESSONS FROM THE STORY

FAITH MOVES CAMPAIGN #SayNoToModernSlavery

TRUE LIFE STORIES

CONSEQUENCES OF MODERN-DAY SLAVERY

EFFECTS OF MODERN-DAY SLAVERY

SIGNS OF MODERN-DAY SLAVERY

HOW CAN MODERN-DAY SLAVERY BE CURBED?

THE SOLUTION TO MODERN-DAY SLAVERY

QUESTIONS TO TEST YOUR KNOWLEDGE OF MODERN-DAY SLAVERY

REFERENCES

WORDS OF GREAT MEN

Imagine that whenever you did something wrong or messed up, they corrected you in love, and told you not to act that way, because you have a sound mind. Just imagine what that would have done for your confidence and self-image growing up.

─ Chris Oyakilome

It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

─ Fredrick Douglas

One wrong word spoken to a broken person can lead such a person to suicide, while a kind, sweet and thoughtful word spoken to the same person can set him free from his gloom.

─ Wills Diamen

Once people do take the risk of telling you what they think, don’t punish them for their openness. Do nothing, absolutely nothing to discourage them from taking risk of communicating again.

─ Dale Carnegie

Any person who is educated is one who has learned to get whatever he wants in life without violating the rights of others. Men are paid, not merely for what they know, but more particularly, for what they do with what they know.

─ Napoleon Hill

The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.

─ Thomas Jefferson

You may have the scar, but you don’t have to feel the pain.

─ Sam Adeyemi

"The Bible is the truth. The Secret Killer is the reality. In combination, they are realisation of the truth."

─Faith Ozioma Peter Diji

LET'S TAKE A STAND AGAINST MODERN-DAY SLAVERY

A working definition of a slave is someone who is forced to work and held under threat of violence for no pay or pay for subsistence.

Although slavery was practised in early recorded history, its psychological effect on the vast number of Africans who were victims of slave trade has left a harrowing legacy on the continent, which cannot be eroded. Slavery existed in Africa, but it was unlike the type introduced by Europeans—chattel slavery—in which a slave was treated as a piece of property with no rights.

Slaves in Africa lost their places in society as well as the rights to protect their families, as the slaves or their children eventually became part of the masters' families. Slaves’ treatment in Africa varied widely. Some slaves worked within their masters' abodes as domestic servants or agricultural labourers. In West Africa, they were sent out to work in gold mines. They were used to weigh gold dust which was used as money. Gold mining was hard and dangerous work, which a great many died from.

Slave trade was rare in primitive societies like the hunter-gatherers' because of the absence of social differentiation or stratification. For slavery to flourish, this index was essential. Also significant was economic power. Slaves were usually maintained (as productive assets) to generate income for their owners.

There had to be a labour shortage; otherwise, it was unlikely that most people would bother to acquire or keep slaves.

According to Richard Hellie's description of the times of slavery, the relationship between African and New World slavery was highly complementary. African slave owners demanded primarily women and children for labour and lineage incorporation and tended to kill males because they were troublesome and likely to flee. The transatlantic trade, on the other hand, demanded primarily adult males for labour and thus saved from certain death many adult males who otherwise would have been slaughtered outright by their African captors. After the end of the transatlantic trade, a few African societies at the end of the 19th century put captured males to productive work as slaves, but this usually was not the case before that time.

Slaves were procured in many ways. The most usual means was capture in wars, either by design (as a form of incentive to warriors) or by accident (disposing of enemy troops or civilians). Others were kidnapped on slave-raiding or pirates’ expeditions. Many slaves were the offspring of slaves. Unwanted children were exposed and offered for sale. Rescuers of these children created self-defeating opportunities from their predicament by enslaving the children.

The most common type of slavery was household or domestic servitude. Although domestic slaves occasionally worked outside the household, for example, haying or harvesting, they had primary duties to menially serve their masters in their homes or wherever their owners might be, such as in military service. Household slaves were sometimes absorbed in varying degrees into the families of their owners, and so, boy slaves became adopted sons while women became concubines or wives.

In all of these expositions, it is worthy of mention that slavery was instrumental in developing two of the world's major civilisations—Western (including ancient Greece and Rome) and Islamic.

Something changed.

The Slavery Abolition Act, 1833, that abolished slavery in most British colonies, freeing more than 800,000 enslaved Africans in the Caribbean, South Africa as well as Canada, received royal assent on 28 August 1833 and took effect on 1 August 1834 (Natasha 2020).

Impact of the Act

The Slavery Abolition Act did not refer to British North America explicitly. Its aim was rather to dismantle the large-scale slavery plantation that existed in Britain's tropical colonies where the enslaved population was usually larger than that of the white colonists. Enslaved Africans in British North America were relatively isolated and were far smaller in number.

The Slavery Abolition Act gave partial liberation to African slaves, as it only emancipated children under six, while others were to be retained by their owners for four to six years as apprentices. The British government earmarked £20,000,000 for damages suffered by owners of registered slaves, but none of the money was sent to slaveholders in British North America. Those who had been enslaved did not receive any compensation either.

The Act made Canada a free territory for enslaved American blacks. Thousands of fugitive slaves and free blacks subsequently arrived on Canadian soil between 1834 and the early 1860s.

Prevalent in every country, and with over forty million people around the world as victims, modern-day slavery blights our society and harms our people. Slavery still exists but in modernised forms to fit this day and age. Slavery did not end with the Abolition Act. Today, women are forced into prostitution. Men are coerced to work in agricultural fields, factories, and as domestics. Children are used by adults to gratify their self-interest. Families are compelled to work for nothing to pay off generational debts. Girls are not left out of this quagmire. They are married off to older men for better living conditions. Migrants are forcefully operated on by opportunists who extract their organs on country borders.

Please note that a person is in slavery if he or she is

forced to work through coercion or mental or physical threat;

owned or controlled by an employer through mental or physical abuse, or threat of abuse;

dehumanised (treated as a commodity or bought and sold as property);

physically constrained, or he or she has his or her movement restricted.

Slavery can affect people of any age, gender, or race. However, some groups of people are much more vulnerable than others. Poverty-stricken people and those who have limited opportunities to get decent jobs are susceptible to accepting deceptively exploitative job offers. Persons who are discriminated on the grounds of race, caste, or gender are equally likely