AN EYE FOR AN EYE
(A STORY OF UNFORGIVENESS WRITTEN BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE)
HOW IT ALL STARTED…
What I am writing about today is something that has been on my mind but I didn't have the gut to talk about it because it's so embarrassing plus the fact that I usually feel hurt whenever I remember, until recently that God finally helped me to find peace. It happened many years ago, when I was still a teenager, living under my parents. Though I didn't tell them, none of my siblings knew too, I guess they’ll see it here now sha. My wife is the only one I've ever told, and I didn't forget how I cried bitterly on the day I was narrating the terrible ordeal to her. Trust me, I am typing this with a big grin on my face right now, because God has helped me to get over it 😁😁
Sit back, read, laugh and learn ✌️✌️✌️
I am the type that likes travelling a lot, so I convinced one of my big sisters back then (not my biological sister) to allow me follow her to Ilorin (Kwara State) to spend one of the December holidays and she obliged. I also begged her to come help me talk to my parents to grant me a pass and she did. Fortunately for me (or maybe unfortunately, you’ll understand as we move on), my parents agreed, they said I could go to Kwara with her for the holiday.
I've lived all my life in Kogi (my state of origin), though Ilorin was my place of birth. My dad told me he was living there till few months after my birth that he was transferred to Kogi State. So we relocated to Kogi when I was still less than a year old.
I was more than grateful for the privilege to see another part of the world. So, I grabbed my stuffs already and off we went!
Oh, my first time in Kwara as an individual that is aware of himself, I was so excited. I felt like "Finally, village boy don visit city ooo" 😃😃😃. I even had a pen and notepad in my hand, I was writing the names of all the fine places I saw so that I would have enough gist to give my friends in the village.
My big sister took me to one area in Ilorin called Taiwo Oke, that was where her own elder sister, Auntie Seun, was living. She told me that I would be spending my holiday with Auntie Seun, and assured me that I would be well taken care of. She would also be around to see to my well-being.
The house was a "Face me I slap you" storey building and Auntie Seun's room was one of the rooms at the top floor. The top floor had about 10 rooms, 5 on each side, facing each other, and a passageway separating the rooms. There were occupants in all of the rooms.
Auntie Seun was very kind to me, she took good care of me, my biological siblings wouldn't have done better. Auntie Seun was working, so most times, she would be at work during the day and I would be home alone.
Living in the room next to our own was one Auntie, a complete slay mama, she should be in her early 30s. She had different men she was messing around with, I mean elderly men, people’s husbands. Usually, all the tenants would be at work during the week days. Apart from me, she was the only person who was always home. Her customers usually come visiting in big cars. I can’t say she had no job, at least, she dey do hook up for her room 😁😁😁😃😃
One of the days Auntie Seun had gone to work, it was around the time that P Sqaure’s “Busy body” album was still trending, I was inside the room jeje, relaxing with the music. I even increased the volume to a considerable level because I didn't want to hear all the moaning that usually come from the room of hook up Auntie and her "aristo" customers. Only wall was separating my room and her own. When it was past mid-day, I heard a knock on the door.
When I opened the door, I saw a lady standing at the door, almost n@ked, she was tying a short towel, leaving all her l@p area and cle@vage exposed. The sight was somehow, I almost shouted “Blood of Jesus” and banged the door at her face but I considered such as embarrassment. I quickly thought to myself…“haaa, what is this one again this hot afternoon now?”
Guess who was standing at the door? It was our hook up Auntie oo. I was wondering why she came knocking because she was not someone who had good relationship with neighbours. You know, people who engage in her kind of deals usually live in seclusion, perhaps, because of their conscience. In fact, I had never seen her and Auntie Seun having any kind of conversation. So, I was curious, I was looking forward to hearing why she came knocking.
People of God, what she said to me shocked the living day light out of me, she said…
To be continued
𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄 𝐅𝐎𝐑 𝐀𝐍 𝐄𝐘𝐄 (𝐏𝐀𝐑𝐓 𝟐)
(A STORY OF UNFORGIVENESS WRITTEN BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE)
𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙡𝙡𝙤𝙬𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙨𝙖𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙚𝙣𝙨𝙪𝙚𝙙 𝙗𝙚𝙩𝙬𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝙃𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝙪𝙥 𝘼𝙪𝙣𝙩𝙞𝙚 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙄…
𝑴𝒆: Good afternoon ma, how may I help you?
𝑯𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒖𝒑 𝑨𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒆: I am looking for my phone.
𝑴𝒆: Looking lost…Your phone? I have no idea Ma. I haven’t stepped out of our room today, I’ve not even had my bath, When was the last time you saw it?
𝑯𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒖𝒑 𝑨𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒆: (Now pointing towards the waste bin)…I remember keeping the phone on that waste bin in the passageway when I swept in the morning but I forgot to take it inside when I was done sweeping. Now, it’s no longer there.
𝑴𝒆: Haa, ma, seriously? you mean you left your phone on a general passageway that everyone walks through before entering into their rooms? Anyway, have you tried calling the number?
𝑯𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒖𝒑 𝑨𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒆: Yes, it is switched off already.
𝑴𝒆: Now short of words, all I could say was “Oh wow”.
𝑯𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒖𝒑 𝑨𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒆: Have you seen anyone around here since morning?
𝑴𝒆: Took a moment to think before responding…uuuhm, yes, a guy (named Tunde) from the next house came here earlier to borrow matches. But I couldn’t find matches. So, I just opened the door half way and told him I could not find the matches. He didn’t even enter, he left immediately. I didn’t step out of the room either.
Make e no be like say I be bad person wey no care, I said “Well, Maybe your phone had fallen off the top of the waste bin and the battery pulled out, let’s still search around for it. Hopefully, we’ll find it”
She also informed one other guy whose name is Simo (A Ghanian), one of the occupants of the rooms, who happened to be inside his room on that day that the phone was missing. Simo and I joined Hook up Auntie to search around the passageway where she claimed to have left the phone but it was nowhere to be found.
While we were still looking for the phone, her man friend that was inside the room with her came out and started threatening to take drastic measures if the person that took the phone refused to turn it in.
He was an Alhaji, I was thinking the man would go diabolical, something like making the person that stole the phone run mad, I didn’t even bother, I was careless about his threats since my hands were clean. I felt a thief deserves whatever consequence that he gets from stealing.
After we had searched everywhere but couldn’t find the phone, I was already bored, so I went straight to the bathroom, had my bath and took a walk of about 20 minutes.
I got the shock of my life when I got back home. I saw a police Hilux parked right at the front of our house, with over 30 people around our neighbourhood gathered in our house. Immediately they sighted me, some of them pointed at me while they repeatedly echoed “𝑻𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒚”
I was totally lost, I was trying to process what could have happened within the few minutes I left the house. I was trying to understand what “This is the boy” really meant. I was still trying to read the environment when a giant police officer started walking towards me, once he got close enough, he landed me a very hot slap. The next question that followed was “𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒆 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒑𝒉𝒐𝒏𝒆?”
Amidst tears and confusion, I muttered “Which phone Sir?”……..My brain still never boot finish
𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏: The phone you stole before leaving the house.
𝑴𝒆: Sir, I honestly don’t know anything about the phone, I already told her, I was in my room when she came to knock and told me about the missing phone.
𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏: You lying small boy! You think I don’t know that you went to hide the phone as you stepped out? Take me and my men back to the place you’re coming from, bring out the phone from where you hid it, hand it over and we’ll let you go.
𝑴𝒆: I brought out my own phone and pointed it to the police man and said “Sir, take a look at the phone that I’m using, It’s more expensive than the missing phone (My elder brother bought it for me, a Sony J70 phone, a very good phone at that time).. I prefer my own phone a million times to the missing phone Sir. I have no reason to steal another phone. I already have one”
And another hot slap landed on my face…taaash!, and he used a round kick to pack me from the floor. Na so I land whaam for ground. The way the police men treated me was nothing different from jungle justice. Only God knew how much that Alhaji paid them, they were so brutal and unreasonable. Those memories contribute to why I do not like the police till today. I kind of believe that the bad ones are more than the good ones.
And you know the Nigerian factor, your money is your right, person wey no get money no get any right plus I was a minor and I had no one to stand for me, Auntie Seun was at work when all these things were happening. All odds were completely against me.
𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒏: You must think I’m here to joke. Sergeant, handcuff him and put him inside the truck. I can see he is a hardened criminal. By the time I’m done with him in our station, he would have forgotten his surname. I will design this his fine face for him.
𝑨𝒍𝒉𝒂𝒋𝒊 𝒔𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑷𝒐𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒎𝒆𝒏: I want you to teach this stubborn thief a lesson he will never forget, deal with him mercilessly till he confesses. Even if he refuses to confess, I don’t care, I just want him to be thoroughly dealt with.
Tor, Na so dem seize my phone come put handcuff for my hand like a common criminal oo, and they bundled me inside their Hilux and drove me to their station.
The people gathered around were looking at me like “God forbid, which kind bad pikin be this one?”
I can’t blame them, the story completely connected; I stole the phone and quickly ran out to hide it. May we not see implication in Jesus name. May we not be available on the day that yawa will gas.
The Hilux drove off and the Alhaji followed in his own car. I knew being inside the same truck with those fierce-looking policemen was real trouble for me . But I was just a helpless young boy, what could I have done?
I can’t count the number of slaps I received while we were on the way to the police station. They kept me in the middle. If the police man at the right land me hot slap, before I say peem, the one at the left would dial me another hot one. I had stopped crying already. E get some kind beating wey person go chop, strength no go dey to cry again.
When we got to the police station, they removed my shirt and trouser and took me to one session of the station where they normally torture criminals. There were vertical poles in that room and different types of whips and other equipment for torturing. They handcuffed me to one of the poles, brought out long whips and pressing iron, and then connected the iron to an electric source. 😭😭😭😭
AN EYE FOR AN EYE
(A STORY OF UNFORGIVENESS WRITTEN BASED ON PERSONAL EXPERIENCE)
While I was still handcuffed to the pole, the policemen used cane to draw map on my back and bum bum. You know that kind of long flexible whip that when it lands on your mid section, it will coil round your waist….I don’t even have the best words to explain. The whip left scars like when someone is wearing plenty beads around his waist.
Alhaji stood and enjoyed the show for some time before he left. I could see the satisfaction on his face as I screamed in pain. It must have been a very fulfilling sight to behold. Wickedness dey this world o.
Each time the police men flogged me, they would scream “I said where is the phone?” “If you don’t confess now, I will press this iron on your face”….then he would take the hot iron close to my face so that I would feel the heat. I have never been that afraid in my entire life.
It got to a point that I couldn’t stand the brutality again. Do you know that feeling when you’re being flogged but you can’t use your hand to rub the spot that the cane landed on your skin to ease the pain? All you can do is scream and scream. The torture got to a level that I wanted to admit what I didn’t do. I just wanted that flogging phase to end. So, an idea came and I told them to wait that I would confess.
Then I asked them “Sir, there were two other guys whose names were mentioned (Tunde and Simo, the Ghanian brother), why am I the only one Brough here and tortured mercilessly?”
Police Man: Because you’re the prime suspect. Everyone said you were the one that took the phone.
And the flogging and screaming continued…
At that point, I realised that the whole torture wasn’t about getting the missing phone back, because the money Alhaji used to invite policemen (plus the one he probably used to bribe them) was already more than the worth of the missing phone. It was about dealing with me. It was about putting me through pain. It was about executing the task Alhaji gave them.
When they had flogged me to the point where I was no longer screaming, I guess they were afraid that I was about to give up (die), they stopped, removed the handcuff and left me on the floor for some time to catch my breath. Fortunately for me, they didn’t burn me with the hot iron, I guess it was just there to scare me.
They later came back and handed me a sheet of paper and a pen that I should write a statement. They asked me to write whatever I know about the missing phone on the paper given to me.
So, I narrated all that I knew and gave the paper back to the police man. He was shocked to see such a lengthy write up from a small boy. Out of curiosity to know the content of the statement, he quickly sat and read.. He then started asking me questions and saying things like “How old are you that you write so well?” “Obviously, you’re intelligent, why did you get yourself into this mess?”. I didn’t even say a word.
Na so God help me oo, the man became soft and stopped bullying me. He started explaining to me that the report given to them added up, and pointed me out as the culprit. He said Alhaji and Auntie hook up told them that I took the phone, ran out of the house and went to hide it, so they must be firm if they want me to confess.
After some time, I was locked inside a smelly, dark room. It had no window but the door was made of metals, like burglary. Na there small breeze they follow enter the cell. There was one guy there already. I don’t know who he was or how he landed in the police cell.
When Auntie Seun got back from work (I guess someone narrated all that transpired to her), she rushed to the police station to see me. When she saw the condition I was in, she bursted into tears. Amidst tears, she began to plead with the police men on the counter to have mercy and let me go but they ignored her. They only told her to hurry and get out at once! She also brought me food. She asked me what I know about the phone and I told her the truth; “I am innocent!”
People of God, like play, like play, I slept in the police cell oo, I ate the food inside that smelly place, urine everywhere on the floor. I even wanted to starve myself so that I would die and everything would end, but I knew I needed to survive because there’s an important mission that I was yet to accomplish…REVENGE!
Revenge was my driving force for survival.
With my head bowed in the cell, I thought to myself “Everyone who made me go through this pain must pay….EYE FOR EYE, BLOOD FOR BLOOD!”
The following morning (my second day in the police cell), when I wanted to pee, the police men first insulted me and called me a thief before they finally gave me a container to do it, then they opened the cell and one of them followed me across the road to pour it away, with handcuffs on my hands oo.
Around mid-day, I saw Simo (Ghanian guy) arriving the police station alongside his parents and some of the policemen that arrested me. They had gone to arrest him too. But I didn’t see Tunde (The third suspect that came to borrow matches from me).
The police man told Simo and I that he had tried begging Alhaji, that he insisted that we must produce the phone or give him money equivalent to buy a new one of the same type. Hmmm, Imagine wickedness oo, even after all the torture, I go still pay for the phone.
Do you even know the type of phone that I almost got beaten to death for?
It was yellow face Nokia (Nokia 1100) 😁😁😃. One old Nokia like that, that one that has snake game. I browsed the picture of the phone, I’ll attach the picture.
As at that time, a brand new Nokia 1100 was worth up to 7 thousand naira. Though Naira still had value then, 7 thousand naira was a lot of money. My father’s salary then was less than 20 thousand naira, meanwhile, he was a civil servant. That should give you a clue to the worth of 7 thousand naira then.
Unfortunately, Alhaji claimed he bought it for 9 thousand naira, so 3 of us must pay three thousand naira each.
Find out how things played out in the next episode after your comments✌️
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