The Stolen Manuscript (Episode 2)
The most annoying thing about Sanni is the information in his disposal that the inspector is dating Amina, not only was he seeing her, but he didn’t even bother to make it a discreet affair, if just to honor him for being the boss.
Sanni was also aware that the Commandant grudging him because of Amina, he even heard from a reliable source that the commandant was planning to take him to a very remote area around Oke-Ira, and was only waiting for an approval from the headquarters.
The commandant walks into the restroom in his office, quickly wraps a tiny weed. He had kept that piece of grass in his wallet before the radio message received to arrest the writer.
He lights up the weed, drew smoke into his lungs, feels the need for a shot, but there wasn’t going to be time for that, apart from the smell it will have on his breath. But not smoking a piece of weed after this outing was like committing suicide.
Now after the first smoke hits him, he was beginning to think properly. Somehow weed helps you think properly, even though a lot of people misunderstand the effect of weed.
He freshens up and was ready to meet with the arrested suspect. It’s not only journalists who turns a suspect to a criminal even before the court does, a lot of police officers do too.
Somehow, he wasn’t comfortable with the controversies around the matter; it would not only bring a stain to his personal office, but also image damage to the Nigerian police force. So he had to exercise all necessary cautions. He must speak on one on to the suspect first before addressing the press, they can wait forever, who cares about the press anyway, and they are only used when necessary to fulfill purposes of the user.
He tries to remember where the smoke came from, that must be Tewobola’s smoke. The weed was already having the desired effects, his nerves were relaxed, and was ready to stand even before the world court to justice and to testify even in a high profile terrorism case.
He hears a sharp knock on the door,
“Yes” he responds and his personal aide Mike walks in.
“Sir, Inspector Sanni asks if they can come in to see you now.”
“Let them in”
“Yes sir” he salutes as he walks out of the office where the inspector stood with an ASP and three other cops. The suspect had been left in the watch of heavily armed policemen at the police reception at the Area G Police command at Ogba.
Monitoring unit had been ordered to tighten security at the police command entrance while the anti-bomb squad had been alerted in case of a reprisal attack by another set of attackers, though this was highly not envisaged, the police would not be caught unawares.
It was half past seven on Friday night when most people would go out to club and other social gatherings to relax after working from Monday nonstop, policemen and women are not left out of these social gatherings.
Fela’s Shrine will be the best bet for the night, lots of weed to smoke, lots of loosed girls and music to dance to.
But in most places of work particularly in the private sectors, subordinates don’t leave work until after their bosses had left or they are told to go, even though there is usually a closing time stated in most letters of employment.
Sanni was one of the police officers who are anxious to see Friday nights, if not for the case, he should have been at Fela’s shrine by seven, his friends from other commands would be there already catching fun, smoking weed and carrying any kind of girls they want to spend the night with.
In fact he had a date with Amina that night; they were supposed to hook up as soon as he closed for the day. Amina was in the Human Rights unit, the Human Rights unit, mostly deals with domestic matters and they close early because their boss, who is a woman, likes to close early.
The truth is that police work is better than working in a private sector, you have all your time to yourself, and no one in that sense is monitoring your movements.
It was Inspector Sanni that walks into the office first before the rest of them. They all salute the Commandant who was sitting in his desk. The suspect was also ushered into the office with his hands still cuffed.
He stands with his hands cuffed, taking in the whole details of the office in, and right from the entrance of the area command. He lets a sketch of the entire environment into his brain.
Most of the officers are aware the Commandant had taken a smoke, as usual, even though he took the smoke in the inner part of the office and had used a strong anti-tobacco refresher, those of them who smokes weed knew he had smoked before they came in. Though the whole area command already knows that the boss smokes in his office, in fact some of them already knew his smoking routine, that he smokes once he comes into the office and does not see anyone until thirty minutes after he comes in.
“Yes, gentlemen” he starts to address them, “Thanks for the work you did today. The Nigerian Police Force is proud of you all, I am sure the Inspector General will commend some of you here”
“This is a high profile criminal case, because of this I have deliberately put my phone off; I am sure by now there would have been calls from different people, particularly some important people in the society”
“You all know Mr. Chuks” he points to the suspect who was now being looked at by the other policemen standing in front of him”
“This man is a highly respected writer in the country and even abroad, I have always wish to meet him in person, because I am one of his fans, unfortunately my first meeting with him is this serious case”
He stops to look at the expression on the face of the man who still looks indifferent to everything that was happening around him. He had other things going on his mind, and the talks would only buy him time, they could keep talking all they can for all he cares.
Being a great writer has its own negative publicity too, every popular person has a price to pay for being popular and every successful writer must pay a price for being a famous writer.
“Inspector Sanni was initially assigned to the case last week, before the arrest this morning. Now this has to be handled from another angle all together, apart from what they were investigating, there was a high profile murder attempt on my humble self, commandant of this division and my entourage that went to arrest Chucks earlier, as you all know”.
“Like I mentioned to you guys earlier” he showed them his two phones, “my phones have been put off since to avoid calls particularly from the press and other people of interest.”
He stands up and walks to the cops who stood at ease. Everyone in the police division had fear for the boss not just because of his build which is very intimidating but also because of his high profile as a cop who studied abroad and had cracked several criminal cases as an inspector before climbing the height of success to where he was.
“There is going to be a different proceedings to what we are already accustomed to in handling of this case.” He pauses to take look at them, particularly at Sanni who quickly looks down.
“I will do the first hearing, all by myself; I will listen to what this gentleman has to say about this case for which he has been arrested...
There was a knock on the door, one of the officers close to the door opens it, a note was passed to him, and he reads then said something to the ear of the personal aide of the commandant who walks quickly to the commandant.
“It’s the commissioner sir”
“Okay, what did the commissioner say” the commandant asked.
“Said, he’s been calling your number”
“Okay” the commandant replies, “I will call him soon” and he continues
“I will be in charge of this case, at least for now. I am going to interrogate the gentleman by myself while you guys should see to proper removal of those corpses to a General hospital mortuary.”
“Yes sir” they reply in unison.
“Inspector Sanni”
“Sir”
“Unchain the suspect” he commands.
The inspector unchains the suspect hands while the other police officers went out to meet others waiting along the veranda to the office.
“You can go, but hang around, I will send for you when I need you” he orders the inspector out.
"Yes sir" he salutes and walks out of the office.
Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places,
events and incidents are products of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons,
living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental
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Phone: (234) 08121807240
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