This is a continuation of my initial story some days back you can click here to catch up.
The deed has been done right?, I had overstepped my boundaries like some people will say. "Why will you be recording a policeman? Don’t you know some people’s lives have been wasted for things as small as that? This should be the point of argument for majority of persons. After all, there has been news of trigger happy policemen that have ended the life of some persons on the street for far more trivial reasons. There was a story of a policeman that shot a tricycle operator dead because he refused to give him #50 (about 0.1 cents) he had demanded from the guy and other rather unbelievable instances. But I guess I still had the blood that runs in my father in me. He is a hater of these set of people and have always not given them any space when their paths cross.Yes, that has been some of the stories I have heard about the Nigerian police in the past, but as terrible optimist that I am, I have decided in the past to try and believe what I had heard from the police reps( commissioners of police, their public relations officers e.t.c ) trying to paint the police as our friends.
No later than I was whisked into their half bashed and half-panel beat vehicle, the 3 men zoomed off to the police station. As I was in the car, I looked calm and had an expressionless face with a little grin at specific intervals (as much as not to show any traces of fear in me). Not long on the journey, one puts a call through to one of their superiors. “oga”, we have a case at hand, we are coming straight to the station, are you around? There is one useless man here disturbing us from our work”. No thanks to the network, the line wasn’t clear enough and they had to make the call over and over again. In my eyes, It was looking like watching 24 series and jack Bauer contacting CTU on his eventual capture of Tony Almedia, only that in this case, unintelligent guys are involved.
Soon enough we got to the police station. Area F is a well-known police station, one of the reasons being it is very close to the police college and also the police headquarters (seat of the police commissioner) for Lagos State. So, I guess the activities there were made popular by media coverage and all, the reason for the popularity. But wait, I am not a full Lagosian, so you can correct me if I am wrong.
Bail is free (Who knows if bail itself has independence)
Source
As we walked into the police station, I saw them made some gestures to others; wonder what it meant. Soon we passed through a courtyard and then moved into a room. One thing I love about the station is the design (well, I had not been in one before). It is a one story rectangular structure with a courtyard at the center which ensures adequate utilization of daylighting and ventilation. From my cursory view, it was zoned into the visitors( convicts/suspect cells) admin and other areas. Soon enough, I had gotten a glimpse of some detainees (the majority obviously there for useless reasons) peep from one of the enclosures.
I was taken into a room that looked like their office because I saw some uniforms hanged around and some boots here and there. It has a bench and a table, just like we used in my primary school.I was not offered a seat, so, I dared not sit.lol. soon enough, the “oga” they had called over the phone was in the room with us. The men were asked what the issue was, they explained just as it happened. So, the man asked me what happened. I thought he was a "gentleman", but I was wrong. I told him just as it happened but added on the reason why I was recording that I recorded because I saw no reason why it was wrong to do that since they were in the middle of their actual obligation/assignment. I used myself as an example. I said “for example, I am a quantity surveyor and I won’t mind if anybody is recording my actions when I am doing my work and so, I didn’t expect the men to take it as an offense”. That was the explosive point. I had stepped on the Cobra’s tail. Oga took it into his skull, I could see the fury in his eyes. “You are not serious!” “you don’t know what you have gotten yourself into” this and that were the words uttered from his mouth. Soon, there were suggestions that I should be taken to the DPO from amongst them.
In all of this, I decided to remain calm, still wearing an expressionless face and some grins at intervals although I had little concerns in me. I was being careful not to find them any reason to lay their hands on me. In fact, I was afraid because the room was not too open and neither too secluded. I knew it will be sorry at the end. That is even if I was going to take any action against them. Now, they had deleted the videos I took of them. They had battled with navigating through the phone. I didn’t have a lock code on it but it still took them time to navigate around, passing the phone from one to the other until one opened up and told me to delete the video right there by myself...lol
I had to open the video gallery repeatedly to assure them it had been deleted. It was at that point I was bitter that I had set my google backup to be over wifi if not, the video would have been saved on google drive photos before they remembered deleting it. Data is still quite expensive in this part of the world and I couldn’t have allowed it to be set that way. But some way some how, I found ot that while they were fumbling with my phone, they had recorded a short clip of me answering to their questions. I just came across it on my google drive photos days after the event.
Source
Can u see the shoe of one of them..lol
Meanwhile, While I was being threatened with being taken to the DPO, one of them had “pleaded” on my behalf “kind of” (lol) to be taken to another oga and not the DPO yet. I took it as a plead because they believed taking it to the DPO was the very height of things. But in my mind, I was willing to see the DPO. I had imagined that it was easier for me to speak with someone with more education than these ones. I already noticed they were jealous and threatened by one’s educational background (which each one has asked repeatedly) I had even wondered what my having a BSc had got to do with the matter at hand. I guess they learn to thread carefully with the learned. Truth is majority of these police men exhibiting their arrogance have been majorly to the more socially vulnerable ones. But yeah, there have been a pocket of one or two learned ones. I was hopeful that when I meet the DPO, he would have just acknowledged that his boys were just playing to the gallery.
Soon enough, we waited and the other “oga” had come in, let me name him BIGGI. I am sorry I didn’t pick his rank as it was discussed before they decided tohave him involved. He looks more educated than the rest, he looks plump but walks rather smartly and was in plain clothes and not in uniform like the others and had a walkie talkie with him. He has a better command of the English language as all I’ve been communicated with had been half baked English. He was kind enough to offer me a seat. He asked the rhetorical question as I was earlier asked. What do I do, Where was I coming from, where was I going and all and all. I told him as I earlier said but refused to add the part that got the other brutal (not gentle) man angry. Unfortunately, the men added that part themselves.
Now, I am left to believe that Biggi is one of the persons involved in interrogating suspects and criminals. He must have gotten a background in psychology because he did a good job of trying to make me accept guilt for the case at hand. He literarily picked on every statement I made and tried to turn them against me. I had said I was surprised when “striker” (remember him from part one) had called me in the manner he did. Biggi stressed my “surprised” and said I was surprised that the police were doing their job. He even added some other synonyms that could help him drive home his point. He asked if I don't know the police might have been following a trail on a particular case and mine might have just been a subset. Apparently, this is the story you would frequently ever hear of the Nigerian police;how they twist stories from what it was to what they want it to be. This is the major reason even the learned try not to have issues with them.
Meanwhile, in the middle of the conversation, Ify came to mind and biggi asked “why didn’t you bring him too?. It was at that point I was happy he didn’t come with me”. I knew Biggi would have done fine to rope us into something. He took me on that ride just so he could clip my wings but unfortunately, he wasn’t able to do it to me. He was speaking with someone who is a mind reader myself so the majority of his tricks didn’t do much with me but I really know he tried a great deal. My voice was not as loud as it was when I started but I had not given in, I just made sure the periodic grins were still coming forth. I deduced this from his confession latter on when he said I was not sobered (instead of sober right?). This was when none of his tricks could catch up with me.
We have now moved out of the room to the courtyard with their rank and file not determined of what to do to me. I had maintained an appearance that does not show me to be arrogant nor am I willing to beg. I knew any attempt to beg could mean I was ready to pay them. One of them had at one time suggested that I should be left to go while another had said they should take me to the DPO. Of all the conversation, I did not say a word. All I did was to maintain silence until I was asked anything.
It was at this decision-making position that biggi altered the obvious statement. “You people that are fortunate to read a little, you think every other person is nothing”. That sounded strange to me. I had to ask my brain to run an interpretation for that statement. Is it related to the discussion on the ground? Before my brain could process that, he asked “If you have a childhood friend whom you grew up with but as at now, he is not as privileged as you are. Now, you met him but he’s not doing fine, what would you do? In my mind, I was going to transfer the case to my brain but it Is still trying to decode the first question. Fortunately, I got a hang of the question…lol.. he was giving me a scenario of the policemen who were not fortunate to get educated as much as I was able to get and so, making them the vulnerable ones. At this point, these guys made my BSc degree look like something extraordinary. To myself, I was like “is it not the same BSc (degree gotten from a university) that some others have and are still roaming the streets?”.
My response to biggi was epic and sent me straight to the DPO. He handed off my case immediately. I had told him that I’ll help my old friend get a job so he’ll be well placed to get some decent earning. The response obviously didn’t go down well with him and it was at that point he mentioned that I was not “sobered”. He said “ he is not even “sobered” or are you “sobered”? I had to respond for the sake of it that I was sober, so maybe they could let me go. But first oga is still vexed at my reply to him and was still fronting for the DPO’s office. Then he continued a story I didn’t ask for. "You see, I have a diploma in so so so and so, from so so so and so with many other things". And I was still like, is that related to the matter we are discussing here? (I said that to myself and not him)
Meanwhile at the courtyard, just as I saw when I came into the ‘station', I was seeing a glimpse of the detainees. In my mind I was thinking of what we have seen from Nollywood movies, how they have painted a police detention facility (cell) to be one in which there are authorities already established right in there. There is a “baba alaye” (leader) in there you would need to fan or for your welcome ritual as a new intake, you have to do some awkward things; maybe even ask you to drive a car they had drawn on the wall; just as our wicked seniors did to us in our junior school days.
I was already painting a worst-case scenario. I was imagining also the number of mosquitoes that would be right in the facility. But at this point, my Sallah meat is what was still paramount. Meanwhile the time is ticking already. It is approaching some minutes past 4pm. There is no one to call, I am not bold enough yet to ask them for my phone and we are on our way to the DPO’s office.
Watch out for the concluding Part.