“My day
cannot get any worse,” Sale said despondently to himself as he stared at the
long line of cars that trailed out in front of him. “Of all times to be caught
up in a hold up, this is the worst!”
At that moment,
his mobile phone began to ring for the fiftieth time in the past half-hour. He
did not have to look at it to know it was his boss again. He lunged at it and
picked the call on the second ring.
“Sir,”
he spluttered, “am almost there… it’s the traffic…”
“Young
man, you better get yourself over here in the next five minutes and clean up
this mess, or else!” his boss issued threateningly before hanging up.
Next FIVE minutes?! Haba, I am no
magician. How does he expect me to scale through this jam and get down there in
the next five minutes?
He knew,
though, that his boss never gave empty threats. He had better be at the office
in the next five minutes like he had ordered.
He manoeuvred his car out of the
long line of traffic, looked for a place to park and jumped out, racing towards
a row of buildings on the other side. He knew there was shortcut in there that
led to a smaller road, and planned to get an okada to work from there.
He was
halfway into the narrow path when someone came whizzing past, brushing roughly
against him.
Now that is one man who is in more of a hurry than I am, he mused to himself. Somewhat motivated by the other man's speed, he decided to increase his own pace. However, he had not gone much further when another set of hurried footsteps approached him, and the next thing he heard was, "Stop there!"
Certain
he was about to be robbed, he spun around to have his astonishment increase at
the sight of a policeman standing just a few yards away, with
a gun pointing threateningly at him.
“You
have the right to remain silent…” the uniformed man spat at him as a pair of
handcuffs appeared as though by magic and in a matter of seconds, Sale found
himself handcuffed. Confused, frightened and ready to pee on himself, he tried
to fathom what law he could have broken.
Was the path
out of bounds to pedestrians? Had he parked his vehicle illegally after leaving the traffic jam? He couldn’t think of what it was, and even as he
struggled with his thoughts, another policeman joined them in a half-run.
“You catch
am,” he addressed his colleague in a mixture of surprise and admiration.
“Yes o,”
the other answered proudly, “the bloody criminal almost escaped, but trust me na!”
“What? I
don’t understand what is going on here,” Sale finally found his voice.
“Criminal? Me?”
Neither
of the men were about to give him any audience. “Keep quiet,” he was told, “you
can say everything you want to say when we get to the station.”
Unceremoniously,
he was led out of the alley and a few blocks down the road to a police van that
was parked in front of a supermarket. There were a number of people standing
there and they stared curiously as he was roughly pushed into the back of the
van and hauled away. Everything happened very fast!
At the
station, Sale was stripped roughly of his possessions, shirt, belt, trousers,
phone, car keys and wallet. Then he was bundled into a cell with nothing but
his boxers on, still with no explanation or reason given for his arrest. All
through it he kept trying to ask what he had done, and he was continuously
shouted down and even threatened with being shot if he kept resisting.
Resisting? I am not resisting! Just
want to know what I did!
He threw
frightened glances at the other occupants of the cell as he tried to find a
quiet corner to retreat to. They all looked like they were hardened criminals,
and recalling tales of horror he had heard of what people like him suffered in
the hands of criminals in a place like this, he decided that this had to be his
worst nightmare come to reality.
“Wetin dey do you?” one of the inmates
questioned roughly when he noticed his edgy behavior.
“Nnnnn...nothing,
sir,” Sale stuttered, feeling the eyes of every single man in there on him and
wishing he could just disappear. Suddenly, he felt the urgent need to urinate.
“Obong, give
this yeye man the singlet. Na him turn to fan me now,” the man
commanded. Apparently, he was the kingpin in the cell. The singlet was thrown
at Sale who grabbed it quickly and began fanning in earnest. But he was shaking
so badly with fear that he botched the simple task.
“You dey craze? Na so dem dey fan?” The kingpin sprang to his feet
in fury, ready to descend on him with blows.
At that
moment, the officer who had made the arrest earlier returned, just in time to
save his hide from a beating. “Hey, you… criminal,” he motioned Sale out of the
cell. “My Oga wants to talk to you.”
The Oga, the D.P.O., was standing at the
other side of the counter. He looked up as Sale was led to him and asked his man rhetorically, “This is the thief?” Sale was alarmed. Thief?! How!
The
officer nodded in the affirmative and the D.P.O. turned to Sale, “So you are
one of those making life difficult for the citizens of this town, abi? Now, where did you hide all the
money you stole from that supermarket?”
Sale
tried to defend himself; “I-I… ddddon't know what you are talking about. I am
not a criminal, I think there’s a mix-up here. I was only
on my way to the office when…”
“Will
you SHUT UP! You bloody liar, on your way to the office indeed! What kind of
fools do you think we are? You that I chased and caught by myself, with my own
hands!” the officer screamed at him, then turned again to his boss.
“Sir, it
was just fortunate that we were driving past the supermarket when this
criminal was robbing there at gunpoint. It was when he ran out and the sales
lady shouted for help that we realized what had happened, then gave him a hot
pursuit. We were able to corner him in a dark alley not far away and made the
arrest.”
Sale
tried again to explain that he had nothing to do with any robbery and was just
an innocent passer-by, but no one was interested in hearing him out. They were
so convinced of his guilt. Disgusted, the D.P.O. ordered his men to return him
to the cell, promising to make him pay dearly for his crimes.
The Story Continues>>> Final Part
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