LIFE IMPRISONMENT 18
WRITTEN BY: GRACE OLAYEMI
Danger was at Pricey Plaza chilling with his guys that hot afternoon. He was gulping down the content of the bottles in front of him and his guys paid close attention to him. They knew he only drank himself to stupour when he wanted to forget something that had refused to erase from his memory.
Since the incidence of those school children, Danger had not being himself again. He had constant nightmares where he saw those children calling out to him to save them. He was not the one that killed them directly but he had given the instruction and that made him somehow responsible for their deaths. That was not the first time they were killing children and his guys wondered why he was so affected by the death of those children.
One of his accounts where he kept a lot of money had also been frozen. He sensed it might be possible that Dare had been found out and that was why he didn’t bother to call Dare on any issue. The account details was manipulated and that made him relaxed that it can’t be traced to him.
“Bring another bottle,” he screamed.
“Danger, let’s go! You’ve had enough today already,” Trouble tried to persuade him. They had not gone for any operation since Danger began to sulk and they had spent most of their afternoons and evenings at bars and club houses wasting the little money that was left to their names.
“Leave me alone,” he yanked Trouble’s hand from him and opened the bottle of beer that had been brought for him.
“Mr Oluwarantimi Adel, you are under arrest for kidnapping, murder, armed robbery, rape, vandalism, thuggery, and so on. You have the right to an attorney…” Mr Emmanuel said while showing the arrest warrant to Danger and everyone went quiet wondering what nonsense the strange man was saying.
Mr Emmanuel and seven other policemen entered the VIP lounge at Pricey Plaza and sat at the rear, adjacent to where Danger was with his guys. He kept staring at Danger behind his dark shades and was close to tears when he saw that that was the exact man he was showed in his dream. He saw how relaxed they were and he wondered how many times he had passed beside any of them and he didn’t know they were the enemies terrorizing their city. He continued to pay close attention to them and when he saw that one of them was trying to drag Danger away, he signaled to his guys and they walked up to them. One of the police had the duty of capturing the whole arrest scene as Mr Emmanuel was instructed in the dream.
Trouble looked up at the strange people that surrounded them and he didn’t know if it was a dream or a reality. He had never thought a day would come when they would be helplessly arrested by the police. All attempts by the police in the past had been futile and even whenever they come face to face with the police, it was always a serious bloody war. He reached out to his pocket for his gun.
“Don’t try to play smart as this place is already surrounded by heavily armed policemen that have the order to shoot anyone that proved difficult.”
Trouble was immediately handcuffed as he was the only one with a weapon. The remaining six guys were led out of the lounge and Mr Emmanuel was left with Danger and the officer with the camera.
“This is Danger, the criminal that has been disturbing this city. He has been caught today and would be prosecuted soon,” he said facing the camera and led the drunk Danger away.
* * * * * *
There was untold joy in the city when the video hit the internet and many comments flowed in. Danger’s face was blurred as part of the human right law. The citizens praised the police and everyone was interested in the case to know what the final judgement would be for the man that had done nothing but evil to the city.
The CSP was surprised as to how easy it was to catch Danger and he expressed it when he called the SP who in turn told him that it was God that gave Danger to him. He tried to explain the dream he had, even though he didn’t remember vividly and how everything worked out and the CSP listened intently. With Danger behind bars that means relative peace had been restored to the entire city and the Police Force would have less work to do.
“It was God that heard our prayers and exposed Danger to us. Even though he was right under our nose, we could not see him because he was clever and crafty. But because I serve a living God who will not allow evil to prevail for too long, the God that knows everything and everyone. He exposed Danger and his gang and we were able to get all of them easily. There was no bloodshed or gun battle because only one of them had a gun and he could not even use the gun.”
“That is why no matter what we do in life, we need God to succeed and prosper in it. Only God can guarantee our success through life. He loves us and wants to lead us through; but sin has made us aliens to him and that’s why we suffer and make a lot of mistakes and can’t even turn to him because of the evil in human hearts.”
Mr Emmanuel preached on and the words all made sense to the CSP. If God could make it easy for Mr Emmanuel to catch Danger then he knew that all the hardship in his family would be something so easy to take care of. He said the prayer with Mr Emmanuel and he thanked him profusely for leading him to Christ.
* * * * * *
When Danger became sober, he could not fathom how the police was able to get cogent information about them and arrest them. He was angry and yelled at his guys to give him a convincing explanation. His guys were also taken aback by the sudden arrest that they didn’t even know what to say to him. He demanded that they allow him call his lawyer and he was allowed. He immediately placed a call through to one of his godfathers and the latter didn’t pick the call the first time.
“You don’t want to pick up,” he said angrily when the call was answered the second time.
“Who is this?” The voice responded and then he remembered that he was calling with the police landline and not his phone and then he softened up.
“It’s Danger, sir, he said softly. I’m calling from…” he was saying when the voice cut him short
“Don’t mention my name please or tell them anything. The video of your arrest has been posted and the case is now at the mercy of the public. Don’t let my political career end here. I’ll call the CSP and negotiate on how to process your bail or find someone that can replace you.”
“What?”
“Don’t say anything just listen, I know it’s a landline and the call can’t be recorded because that would be infringing your right of privacy. Please, this matter is beyond us even other party members are here and we have been deliberating on what to do since we saw the video. You’ll hear from us in the morning, please endure through the night.” The line went dead and Danger was stunned.
“Video of arrest? What was that?”
He was led back to the cell by an hefty man that was armed and he wondered what height of threat he was to them. They had chained his hands and legs and it was even the man that placed the phone on his ears while he made the call. Yet he still followed him like he could disappear or escape with a blink.
He asked his guys and they told him that one of the police had a camera while they were being arrested. He was angry that they had to spend the night at that mosquito-infested cell with no bed and a hard surface.
He laid on his back and a picture of his life flashed through his mind and he saw his father telling him that finally his pride and arrogance had come to an end as that was where he would rot.
To be continued…
