LIFE IMPRISONMENT
EPISODE 5
WRITTEN BY: GRACE OLAYEMI
The entire Police Force was thrown into chaos as calls came in from left, right and centre, demanding a vivid explanation of what had happened in the city overnight. Mr Emmanuel was summoned by the higher authorities and was queried for incompetence and lack of sensitivity to his duties. Emergency meetings were held by various security agencies across the country to make sure that such incidence never happened again.
Fear, terror and anguish became the order of the day as the people of the city didn’t know when the victimization by Danger and his gang would get to their doorstep. People were afraid to go out at night or drive through lonely paths. Everyone became extra-careful, vigilant and suspicious. Many people started migrating from the city and the ones that could not leave, lived in complete state of panic and constant agitation.
Mr Emmanuel returned to the station and continued to work tirelessly to unravel the mystery behind the terrorism of Danger and his gang. As famous as Danger was in that city and in the country at large, his real identity remained a mystery. No one knew his real name, where he lived or even a picture of what he looked like. The people that had been victims of his operations in the past and had survived bore witness that he and his guys always had their faces behind masks when they operated. They could only describe his figure which was not concrete enough to sketch him.
“Why do they always escape the police?” Mr Emmanuel asked in frustration as he read through the previous files on Danger’s operations and saw that there was never a time the police was able to catch the leader and whenever one of the guys were shot in an open fire battle with the police, the person would not confess to his crimes until he would be reported dead.
Danger was known for always taking his time whenever he operated in a place. So, it baffled Mr Emmanuel that the police always appeared at the scene when the deed was done or when the gang were about to leave. That alone increased his curiosity and he was resolute to get Danger behind bars.
“Who were the people on duty last night?” He cried out.
All the officers on duty stood up fearfully.
“Who received the report about the robbery?”
None of them responded and they stared at each other’s faces.
That got Mr Emmanuel infuriated.
“Can’t you talk? Who received the distress call from the citizen we were meant to protect and did not take immediate action? Was it because it was not your house or business that was set on fire?”
“People died, many were injured and you are convenient to still put on that uniform and call yourself a police officer. Shame on you! Shame on me! Shame on us all! No wonder the citizens have lost faith in the Force because we have proven ourselves useless over and over again,” he choked on his own words and could not speak for a while as silence took over the hall.
“We are sorry, sir!”
“Go and tell that to all those lifeless people at the mortuary and the ones fighting for their lives at the hospital. Go and tell that to the children that have been rendered fatherless, motherless or orphans. Go and say that to the people that won’t be able to live a normal life any more because of your negligence.”
“The call came in some minutes after 12am and that was when the trouble started. Over fifty of you were on duty and could not go there until the deed was done. Danger and his guys moved to another place and you arrived at the scene by 1:30am, after the place had burnt to ashes.”
“Are you just policemen because you put on this uniform? Why did you even join the Force? Don’t you know what you signed up for? Who forced you here? If you were too afraid to stand face to face with life threatening situations what make you better than the citizens. All you are good at is oppressing the harmless citizens.”
“It will be better to just suspend you all and know that there is no police in this land.”
Mr Emmanuel continued to vent his frustration on all the officers that were on duty the previous night and even on all the other officers because they had all been on duty at one point or the other when Danger and his gang operated in the city and there had been no fruitful effort by the police. It’s apparent they were also afraid of Danger.
He left the station the previous day after his closing hours and went straight home to spend time with his wife and children and it had been a thing of shock to him when the CSP called him around 3am to ask what was happening.
He had rushed out of the house to the station and that was when he got the full hint of all that went down. By the time they got to the last place Danger went, the shopping complex had been reduced to ashes and no one was rescued from the fire. For the first time in his career, he was ashamed to be called a policeman he wished he had not gone to the site in his uniform. He sympathized with the mourners and wished the Force had been more responsible.
He spent the entire morning clearing the mess and getting statements from the eye witnesses at the different places Danger operated. He got an emergency call that the Minister of Defence was visiting the city and he had gone to receive the lashing of words from him.
He requested for backups from the Intelligent Unit to unravel the case and bring Danger to face the full wrath of the law and his request was granted. As he anticipated the arrival of the delegates from the intelligent unit, he had a meeting with all the officers at the headquarters and gave them word lashes.
To be continued…
