The best recent thrillers – review roundup Alison Flood
Femi Kayode
Raven Books, £14.99, pp432
Femi Kayode’s debut opens with a truly horrific mob killing. Three students are accused of robbery and then murdered in a Nigerian university town, their deaths captured on camera and replayed endlessly on social media. “By the time tyres are thrown over their heads like oversized necklaces, and the smell of petrol wafts so strong that some in the crowd cover their noses, madness has staked its claim on what is left of the day.” More than a year later, the father of one of the boys, looking for answers, contacts investigative psychologist Dr Philip Taiwo, who specialises in “studying the motives behind crimes and how they are committed”.
PORT HARCOURT – Suspected gunmen have abducted a lecturer with the University of Port Harcourt (UNIPORT), Dr Jones Ayuwo, and attacked three journalists of the Rivers State Television (RSTV).
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) gathered that Ayuwo, a lecturer in the Department of Linguistics and Communications Studies, was kidnapped on Sunday night on Andoni-Ogoni Road, Rivers.
The victim was said to have been returning from a meeting with members of his local language Bible translation committee when he was attacked.
Ayuwo, whose wife is the Bursar of UNIPORT, also serves as a member of the Governing Council of Elechi Amadi Polytechnic, Rumuola, Port Harcourt.
The ordeal of the abducted Niger passengers, who were freed on Sunday, made the headlines in many Nigerian newspapers. A report that the country's unemployment woes may persist, owing to the struggles of job-creating sectors and speculations on likely increase in the price of petrol also made the headlines.
Operatives of the Rivers State Police Command have began combing of creeks and forests in the state in search of a first class traditional ruler, King Aaron Ikuru and a university lecturer, Dr. Jones Ayauwo.
As the Dangote Academy prepares to admit yet another set of student engineers, it can be revealed that the company has in the recent past injected over N10billion into the Nigeria’s educational sector.