POLICE IS YOUR FRIEND
As I got into the police station after a distress call from my friend who had been “unlawfully” arrested as he explained, the ambience was so beautiful and it was smelling so nice. I was ushered into an air conditioned office to sit down and relax my nerves till the next hour when the IPO will resume his shift. I demanded he should have handed over to another officer and I was assured he did but that the officer he handed over to had an emergency domestic matter he quickly had to rush home to attend to.
I was asked to make a choice between the day’s dailies or to watch CNN, see marketing o just so I go shake body abi? Taaaa, una don fail cos these niceties was not weking for me so I just looked on in disbelief. Next was that I was asked which one I preferred if it was tea or coffee. For where? Officer don’t go there at all because if our memories don’t fail us, we both know what happened to the last person that was offered tea o; I thought to myself. Mbanu, I no want and make you go back go tell them say u no see me. Then the IPO eventually arrived for his shift and apologised profusely for being a little late. Was I dreaming or real change was indeed here? He also apologised for the unlawful arrest of my friend citing there had been a mix up at the spot where the raid was carried out.
So then, what next? The bail bond was being processed so that I would sign and go home with my yeye friend who obviously had not been tortured but was in fact well taken care of.
Next, came a man whom I presumed was the DPO in charge of the station. His human relations was exceptional and before I knew it, we were engaged in an intellectual discourse ranging from politics, human rights, drug abuse, youthful exuberance and on and on we went. All these discourse I was sure was actually in a bid not to make me think about taking further action on the matter cos he knew it might cost them their reputation and probably some monetary compensation. And just as I remembered that in my rush to get to the station, I had forgotten my wallet which had my ATM cards in it. I then asked the officer to give me a few minutes to make a call and as I called my younger brother to bring some cash that I needed to pay for the bail, the officer was within ear shot, was actually eavesdropping and guess what he told me that took me by surprise cos I have heard that statement “BAIL IS FREE” over a billion times. Wow, interesting times are here.
All done and dusted, we demanded that my friend’s mug shot be deleted from their records as they had realised their mistake. They deleted the mugshot in our presence and as we stepped out, a police vehicle was waiting to take us home with apologies in toe for their mistake.
This sweet scenario was what I painted for my daughter whose teacher had asked to write about any public institution in Nigeria she would like to witness a significant change take place in their operations. This was just a figment of my imagination because I know you all would have concluded before you read to the end that this will never happen in Naija. The time will surely come when this would happen; i can bet it.
