THE season 12 of Gulder Ultimate Search (GUS), ‘The Age of Craftsmanship’ is fast taking a new twist as the gatekeepers of the land, where the warriors that are currently in search of a valuable treasure seem to be angry with the warriors that invaded their hallowed habitat without permission.
Displeased by the invasion and in their bid to restore normalcy, the gods of the community where the warriors had set up their Amorokin Camp, dispatched the unseen gatekeepers, who also are their eyes to go after the warriors, stop from further invasions and perhaps retrieved from them whatever they have gathered as clue to lead to the treasure.
Adopting what seems a tactical strategy, the gatekeepers pitched the clans — Amo, Iroko and Irin — against one another in a task dubbed ‘Break The Tiles’, where each was asked to target and break another clan’s tiles. And the clan with the least broken tiles becomes the winner, while the clan with most broken tiles becomes the loser.
Amo Clan began the task, as they were the first to find the metal object. At the end, Irin Clan, which had won the ‘Dope A Rope’ task a day before, suffered a loss, as the clan’s tiles were the most broken. As consequences for their dismal performance, one warrior from the clan must go home.
Orevaoghene Godswill Oboh popularly known as Oreva, 25 years old Electrical Electronics graduate from Delta State bore the brunt of the clan’s poor performance, after failing to provide answer to his chosen question asked by the anchor of the show, Toke Makinwa at the place of the talking drum.
By his eviction, the master of ceremony (MC) and the chief executive of his own event lighting company, became the sixth warrior to be evicted from the GUS 12 in episode 9.
Prior to the day’s task, Yankarin Solomon, the fitness instructor from Bauchi led the trim down clans in the usual morning workout session. Afterwards, the warriors set out to the task arena in high spirits amid singing.
To begin the task, each clan was asked to volunteer one warrior who will help it search for metal objects to be used for the task. And with the objects found the warriors went into action.
In what seemed like a planned gang up, the Amo Clan and the Iroko Clan, which had previously conceded victory to Irin Clan, went after the latter’s tiles, which were easily identified by their colour just as the other clans.
With Tobechukwu Okoye, a member of the Iroko clan doing the damage to Irin Clan, the game was over, and thus, his clan emerged the winner of the task.
Displeased with their performance of the task, anchor of the show, Toke shortly after the game, empathically told warriors, “You all performed woefully, I see you at the place of the talking drum.”
For 29 years old Chidimma Veronica Okeibe, a Human Resources manager, project assistant and a digital marketer, the task was more of a gang up. But the 26 years old film director, Adedamola Adewale Johnson from Lagos, who the council of elders had a day before approved his switch to Amo Clan countered, saying, “we just had similar objectives, it wasn’t something that we pre-discussed. We didn’t even know what the task was going to be about.”
Speaking earlier before the task, on her experience so far, Esitima Francis Edem, 24, a graduate of accounting said, “In this competition, I have learnt a lot of lessons; I have learnt that this is a game in all, anybody can go home at any time.”
On his part, 33 years old air traffic control simulator officer at the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT) Kaduna, Emiola Tosin Michael said “I have never understood the concept of the words observe, listen and apply like I have in this thing we are in.”
Meanwhile, a new twist was introduced to the GUS quest with the unveiling of the ‘boomerang baton or anchor look-like’ the council of elders through their spokesperson, Toke, who advised the warriors to cautiously look out for it as they search for hidden treasure in the jungle.
“This boomerang is your second life; you must look out for it as you go on this journey. It could be your life saver as we go into the individual tasks in the days ahead,” Toke said.
