A true live story:

One of the stories that greeted new entrants at the high school at Izuogu was that of Obioha. The next thing uppermost in mind was to see this Obioha and know the kind of person he was. It did not take a long time for me to come face to face with this strange student. He was said to be capable of changing of changing into a Lion at night looking for victims to devour .

Obioha was a handsome young man of about 22 years old. He often wore a cheerful harmless face, and made friend with several students. The myth around him was believed by many student , many of whom chose to befriend him as a way of escaping from his nocturnal attacks. Even the teachers were afraid of him and were reluctant to punish him for his offenses for which other student incurred punishment.

Students usually woke up early in the morning to take their baths and spread their towels along a rope near the general bathroom.

It all started on a Sunday morning. Pat had gone out before dawn to have his birth. It had rained heavily the previous night and the storm was so devastating that it pulled down a naked electric wire that fell over the rope for spreading towels.

Pat had gone over to spread this towel as usual. Soon as he did so, the electric wire shocked him so violently that he began to shout at the top of his voice. His voice was so loud that it awoke every student at the school dormitory and nothing else than the fear that the man-lion was devouring a victim.

Some students jumped out of the windows half naked, shouting and screaming at the top of their voices. Villagers residing near the school compound heard the noise and joined in the exodus.  

When day broke the students were asking each other whether he saw the lion. They were afraid to go back to the school compound to see if there were dead bodies littered all over.

Meanwhile the matter had been reported to the police by the school principal, Mr. Anya. The news that was spread and which the police also heard was that a wild lion had attacked the school, and nobody could ascertain how many students were attacked and whether there were fatalities.

The police immediately mobilized to the school fully prepared to confront the lion in question. Meanwhile Pat had given himself up to the police to explain all that happened to him and why he was shouting. He took the police to the site where it all began and it was clear to all that Pat suffered electric shock from the necked wire that fell over the towel spreading rope. This revelation soon gained traction and the students began to return.

As students began to return Obioha was no where to be seen. This put some fear into the school and many still kept to the belief that Obioha must be responsible for the exodus. This was mainly because many were not aware of the investigations carried out by the police and many also never heard of the confession of Pat.

The neighboring villagers who joined in the exodus because the student were running did not know what had happened that led to the exodus. Many never heard the story of Obioha the man-lion and he was feared by the student. Unfortunately their exodus had triggered off exodus by contiguous villages. and this had created a big refugee problem for that government. Although government had tried its best to persuade the villagers to return to their homes, many were reluctant to comply out of fear that what the government was saying might not be true, and they did not want to take any chances with their lives.

  Finally the police decided to approach Pat with some incentive to plead with him to follow them to the refugee camps to talk to the villagers and explain to them how he had stirred up the exodus. Pat also confessed that while the shock was happening to him, he had thought he was under the grip of the lion which had been in the mind of the students and for which Obioha was being suspected and feared. This move worked out as many villagers after listening to Pat believed him and began to retrace their steps to their village home.

Pat explained that he had to wake up very early on that Sunday take his bath because for the first time in four months, a reverend father was coming to celebrate holy mass for them and he had very eagerly looked up to it. So he did not want to risk that opportunity by struggling with other students at day-break for a space in the bathroom which could only accommodate a few students at a time due to its small size.