Local Legends At Boarding Schools
If there's one thing boarding schools in Nigeria never had a shortage of, it was the never ending series of local legends or folklore plaguing this system especially at the secondary school level. There were tons of stories from people about bizarre events that took place within these different school walls with similar patterns even though they were all in different state areas. It was extremely difficult to ascertain if these events were real or not as they always end in mysteries but because of the way these supposed witnesses relay their encounters with so much gusto, trusting them seemed like the only logical thing to do.
From a very young age I always looked forward to attending a boarding school just to get a taste of these experiments as well but unfortunately I was never that lucky. My elder sister on the other hand was my personal reservoir of boarding school folklore as she spent the entirety of my secondary school experience as a boarder. Every term when she returned home for the holidays, there was always a new story to tell most which she didn't even experience herself but still found convincing enough to tell. She told different folklore ranging from the screaming woman, the sound of footsteps at night and lots more. Of all the stories I heard, the one that stuck out to me the most were the phantom Rapist aka the blanket man .
According to her the Blanket man was a serial rapist who sneaks into the girls hostel every night to take the girls sleeping on the lower bunk. No one knows he finds his way into the hostel since the windows and doors are locked shut by 9 pm daily or how he even does it without making a sound. Tired of his constant abuse, the girls decided to stay up an entire night to put an end to everything forcefully. The nightfall came and the girls waited for his arrival which he did. Even with the doors closed he still weaseled his way in and almost immediately he was surrounded and apprehended by a mob of angry girls prepared to mess him up but before they could really hold him down, he disappeared right in front of their eyes. None of the girls knew how he did it and the fear of such a thing happening that late at night kept the whole hostel awake that entire night. That was the last day the blanket man's presence was felt in that school and till this day rumors of his existence still roamed the environment of the school.
Back then when I heard this story, every fibre of my existence believed it. However as I grew older, the inconsistency in the story made me doubt its credibility and the fact that my sister was not even present when it happened made me doubt it even more. Overall I believe stories like this are rumors shared to liven up the school and nothing more as there is never an end to something new yet nobody ever seems to know who the victims are. I still wish I attended a boarding school in high school maybe I too would have stories like this to tell.
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