It was like a dream. It all happened like a mirage but the sufferings,pains and tortures he endured made him realize he was really in deep shit.
That saturday morning he was on his usual morning jog, meant to keep him fit. It was about 6am in the morning. He noticed unusual calmness in the area. Everywhere was silent, it was like a curfew had been placed on the area.
He got a corner at the end of his street, he ran into a body on the rough road. The person was stabbed in the neck. He stopped, observe around and saw that the area was queit. There was still life in the person. He knelt close to the body,shouted for help, no one came to help. He tried to pull out the dagger on the man, it was stuck, his hands was stained with blood. He raised the man up with the intent of carrying him to tge bus stop, so they can help him to the hospital.
The man died in his hands.
Fear gripped him, he dropped the dead man, with a blood stained hands, he ran home.
He got into his apartment,locked himself, washed himself,sat down thinking. The body kept coming to his memory. He was disturbed, he wasn’t sure if no one saw him.
Every time he heard a knock on the gate, he would think the police were here for him.
The memory kept replaying in his head like a movie. Maybe he should have just walked away instead of trying to help, maybe he shouldn’t have touched the body. Maybe this or maybe that.
By 8am, he heard noise out side his compound, Before he could know it, police was led by some thugs into his compound. His landlord could not stop them, they came for him, they banged his door. With tears he opened. The police seized him, led him to their waiting van. The crowd looked pitifully at him. Tears gushed out of the pinnacle of his eyes uncontrollably flowing down through his cheeks.He kept saying ” no be me kill am”.
They drove off to the station.
That was what led him to prison, before prison, he had spent weeks in Special Anti Robbery Squad cell, enduring torturing, he didn’t know who called but they showed him pictures of his hands on the body, how he held the dagger, the dagger was found on the body, fingerprints revealed he was tge last person to touch the body, 2 of the hoodlums in the area witnessed that they saw him, his and snapped him, the police said he knew of his crime that was why he said “no be me kill am” when they came for him. The police beat him beyond recognition. They tortured him to admit his crime, he maintained no. He wouldn’t indict himself. He was charged to court. His family tried all they could, they could not afford a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN). The lawyers tried, but the evidences pointed to him. The police inspector said he was a cultist. Tge judge was a no nonsense man. The more he tried to explain himself , the more it painted him the killer. He was looking at death by hanging for murder, and possible life in prison for manslaughter. Hiss mother cried, he was just a young man trying to start his life. The father was only a pensioner and had an old flat. The family raised a lot of money, spent millions on his case but no the devil was ready to steal his youth.
He had spent 8 month in maximum prison, he was left in the hands of wild devouring prisoners.
He cried every night, begging God for help. The family was only allowed to see him once a month in prison and they would have to bribe the warders to see him. He spoke to his mother in tears during one of her visit. It wasa just one more court sitting for the defence counsel to close their case. His lawyers could not promise him acquittal, but her said that could get the judge to reduce his sentence.
He was not pleased with that. How can he bargain for a crime he didn’t commit.
He sent words to his mother, she went to the mountain top, stayed days and night praying to God to prove her son innocents. She pleaded for God advocates.
On the day of his judgement, the defence counsel pleaded to present one last witness after he had closed the case. Those who know about law procedure would no you will have to file other processes to stop the court from reading judgement. The Judge agreed, the prosecutor didn’t argue, they felt nothing would come out of it.
One of the hoodlums that excorted the police to his house on the day he was arrested cane forward, he recognised the hoodlum. The hoodlum narrated how area boys and some suspected cultist had a fight the previous night and one of the cultist stabbed an area boy. Tge cultist happened to be one of the guys that owed him money.
They decided to wait in the hiding until someone neutral, a good Samaritan would touch the body and they would now turn the case so that the police would not round them up.
He was just used.
He suffered 8 months for a crime he didn’t commit. He was caught offside.
One month later, he was discharged and acquitted and paid millions for damages. Don’t doubt the power of prayer. Paul and Silas prayed, the prison doors were opened
Martins Adedeji
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