"1: To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the Heaven. 2: A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;".
Just like Prophet Noah (AS) was asked to bring aboard a pair of each animals, so as every coin has two sides.
The 5 years old metal bar which looked like it had stood the test of time as a result of lack of proper maintenance, wasn't left out of this 2 sides syndrome; while one side contained a long dirty corridor with a wall yellow painted wall, hovered by a brownish white ceiling fitted with 3 bulbs in a straight file, 6 metres from each other, the other side held 3 cells of 8 feet each, with holes drilled at a corner which served as a comfort station, a mat, bucket and a keg for water in each cells. Mr. Andrew Adaka sat on a mat in the currently only occupied cell of Magongo Police station in Kogi State, singing 'redemption song' by Bob Marley. 13 minutes had passed the 23rd hour of the day and the police station seemed deserted, this made Mr. Adaka's voice a little louder. "My friend! You no go shut up?" one amongst the only 2 police men that reported and remained in the station for the night duty appeared from a door at the beginning of the corridor, with a 2 weeks old newspaper, marching towards Mr. Adaka's cell. "Sorry sir!" Mr. Adaka returned and stiffled a laugh "you de craze? Why you de laugh like fool since when you come here?" "no vex sir, I'm sorry" he replied and turned his face to the opposite direction. The police constable looked at the newspaper he was holding, indicated a photo with a finger and jammed the paper to the bar, "you know this man?" Mr. Adaka stood up half way from his sitting position to get a clearer look at the photo and returned almost immediately, replying "nope" flatly. "Wetin be your name?" "Jan wiya" "I mean your real name... in full" Mr. Adaka replied "red neck" and smiled, this seemed to infuriate the Police constable, "you de mad? You think say na play I de play for here?..." the police constable walked away and returned 2 minutes later with a slightly heavy bucket, flung the contents of the bucket through the bar on Mr. Adaka and continued "... I say wetin be your name?" the wet man who had tried to dodge the incoming water but to no avail frowned at this development and replied in an angry tone "I want to see my lawyer" "God punish your Papa and the lawyer, I go kill you here and nothing go happen if you no answer me today" "I said I want to see my lawyer" "You still get mouth to talk abi? make i..." "Simon! Simon!! ... " the police corporal on duty who had just emerged from the door of the entrance to the corridor called out "... that's enough... stand down" "see this stupid..." "I said stand down! constable" Constable Simon hissed and walked away from the corridor, bucket in hand, leaving behind the soaked newspaper which had contributed to the mess. The Corporal walked down the corridor to the last room that's usually used as a locker room, fetched a small towel from a heap of clothes, flapped it twice to reduce the dust concealed in it, left the room and proceeded to Mr. Adaka's cell. "Sorry about that Sir... here you go" He passed the towel through the bar to Mr. Adaka who just accepted and smiled without uttering any word. "You seem to be glad you're here... it's like you don't talk very much.... well... I'm sorry about what my colleague did to you...." the Corporal went on a squat position and picked up the wet newspaper which began to drip out water and continued. ".... we've been arguing since you arrived here, I told them the man in the paper was you but no one seemed to believe... your lawyer would be arriving tomorrow morning, I contacted him personally... well... I don't have any clothes here, you can keep the towel sha... call out if you need anything" The corporal rose from his squat position and turned to take his leave "you're a good man" Mr. Adaka replied as he unbuttoned his shirt to dry his body with the towel. It was the Corporal's turn to keep mute though he paused for a while then kept on. "You were right, I am the one in the photo" the Corporal turned and smiled "hum! Can I ask anoth..." "no need, I will tell you why I'm not making a fuss about being here... but before I start, can you get junks for me? I'm hungry, I couldn't eat that thing you guys served me"
"My name is Andrew Adaka, Regional manager of Geerian Bank, that is North Central Region and my family stays here in Magongo while I travel round, you know bank job things na. I spent last weekend with my family and was leaving the house on Monday morning when I was greeted with the shock of my life..." He paused and munched the bread which was on his right hand and disolved it for easy swallow with the Pepsi which he held on his left. He nodded his head, smiling with a mouth full while he chewed hungrily. He seemed to be enjoying the mixture of the meal with the story he was telling so he continued without waiting to swallow up. He started in a babble-like tone which subsided as his throat went into action " I want you to get something straight, do you know Habis Foundation?" "uhhhhhhm No" "well, find out when you can, I'm a proud member. I am the last child and only son of my parents, and was well catered for. My parents were always there for me, my sisters always had my back, my dad was a school teacher, I never for once saw him caned anyone, he scolded my sisters but never laid a finger on any of them, I remember he used to say... 'no one in his right sense would hurt a woman', 'The World shakes when a woman cries and if it's because of you, every living thing goes against you'... my dad once caused the expulsion of a student, a prefect for that matter for slapping a lady, that's exactly what I grew up to live with. May his Soul rest in perfect peace because this training was the best thing that ever happened to me. I became a feminist and made sure I was a member of every serious association, movement or organisation, championing the cause of the right treatment to women. I ignited the abolishment of female bank DSAs and employed the once with my bank and in my region" he bit another piece of the bread, drank more Pepsi, and threw the last piece into his mouth. He paused, swallowed, drank a little more Pepsi, raised the bottle to ascertain the current level, belged a little, covering his mouth with his right hand and dropped the bottle beside his left leg. The patient corporal who stood at the other side of the metal bar leaned on the wall to ease his tiring legs. "On Monday morning, as I was driving to work, I saw a little gathering of people close to that government primary school, along ikpa road, it's not far from my house. It looked like a thief was nabbed and apprehended and they were heading to the police station, but when I drove passed the angry crowd, I discovered that a girl of not more than 14 years of age had been blanketed with the crowd as I sighted the idiot that held her by her trousers, slapping her while one woman who was walking with the crowd supported the lynching with heavy knocks on this lady's head, for what possible reason?" "Innalilahi wa Innalilahi rajiun" "oh! Are you a Muslim?" "yes I am..." "but... you don't look like an aboki na" The corporal chuckled, "I'm from Enugu though" "wow! Ibo Muslim? I've never met one, nice to have met you, interesting... but does your religion support maltreatment of women?" "to the best of my knowledge, no... there's even a complete verse of the Holy Qur'an that was dedicated to women" "yea... I thought as much, the founder of Habis Foundation is a Muslim too and she has admonished us on this on several occasions" "that's nice... well...?" "well... I parked my car immediately, scrambled out and encountered this angry mob, you won't believe the crime they said she committed" "and what could that be?" "She was staying with her Aunt as house help, she did something wrong at home on Saturday and escaped as her Aunt wanted to flog her with a cain, they waited for her till evening before they decided to go in search of this small girl. The whole neighbours didn't rest through out the Sunday while searching for this girl until after a tip off, they found her on Monday morning in one uncompleted building were touts do smoke marijuana. That was all fa... I told them it wasn't worth what they've subjected her to and the lynching must stop, the stupid boy that was dragging her by the trousers who I later discovered was her Aunt's brother in-law, handed this small girl to the woman I told you was knocking the girl who happened to be the said Aunt and faced me. Lo and behold, I received the beating of my life on Monday. Nevertheless, I didn't give up after the first round of my beating, I tried to break the girl free and run away with her but it was 2 against this wicked people, they took turns in driving home that part that I should have minded my business. My clothes were tattered to pieces, it's like they didn't know I parked a car if not, I wonder what would have happened next. Its a wonder they beat me up and let me go, but it was the greatest mistake they made. I got in my vehicle, and sped home... hehehehe! my wife nearly ran away when she saw me emerged from the car.... what a day" the Corporal made his eye brow to a furrow, "I don't get, is that all?" "yea... that was what happened na" "ahn! ahn!! What now brought you here?" "shoo! That was what happened that made me take a dagger from my house, returned to the scene and stabbed the stupid idiot to death, thank God I did it just as some police officers arrived, hahaha... maybe they would have giving me jungle justice" he winked "God! just like that, in cold blood? And no regrets? You could get a life for this, hope you know?" Mr. Andrew Adaka laughed out very loud, mistakingly spilling the rest of the Pepsi that was beside his legs "I don't regret this fa,let the law have its way, at whatever lenght, what's done is been done,no better punishment would have been metted on that fool for maltreating a Priceless Treasure...
