Must Read: The Rich Kids Of Lagos (16+)

Episode 7 years ago

Must Read: The Rich Kids Of Lagos (16+)

It had been a horrible morning for Peter. He was not surprised because it had been preceded by a very horrible night. After weighing his options carefully, Peter had decided it would be sheer stupidity to end it all right now by committing suicide. He reckoned that since the Almighty had saved him from death’s door at Saint Nancy hospital, there was absolutely no reason why he should end it by himself. Peter was convinced that God had very big plans for him despite all his current hardships. As he sat on the bench at the police station, he cast his mind on the journey that had brought him here.



Peter and Pius Ambali had embarked on their journey to LasGidi the previous day at about 3.p.m in the afternoon. Peter realised in hindsight that this was a very grave error for they should have set out at dawn. They had been stuck on the Express Way for the whole night due to an overturned tanker which had caused very grave accidents on the road. They had alternated between keeping the engine running in order to keep their car cool and switching it off to conserve petrol which appeared to be very scarce along the express.


At the end of the day, they decided to turn off their engine and exercise patience. They had therefore gotten in to town very early in the morning and after a nap, Ambali had encouraged Peter to go with him to a Police station where he was good friends with the DPO. Ambali had advised Peter that he should open up to the DPO whom he had called and if need be, write a statement to exonerate himself from the kidnapping accusations la!d at his feet. Ambali had decided on this solution so that Peter would be saved from paying lawyer’s fees. He figured that once he could get Peter to submit a statement and provide the relevant contact details, there was no way Simisola’s Father could pin being a kidnapper on him.
‘Good morning’ said Ambali
‘Morning Sir’ replied one of the police officers – Officer Johnson – behind the counter. The other, Officer Ajala was engrossed in the morning dailies he was looking at.
‘Is the DPO in? asked Pius Ambali
‘No oh, he has not arrived yet’ replied Officer Johnson amiably, almost as though he was happy that his boss had not arrived yet
‘Hmm.. I had hoped to meet him. Anyway we are here so that we can issue a statement. Did he tell you about this?’ asked Ambali
‘You are here to issue statement? How can you just decide to issue statement? Na you go tell us our work?’ asked Officer Johnson who was suddenly angry. He was calmed down by his colleague , Ajala who whispered in his ear and then took up the conversation.
‘Una talk say you want to write statement ba?’ asked the Officer Ajala
‘Yes’ responded Ambali, the self appointed spokesman for the duo. ‘We want to write a statement’ he repeated emphatically.
‘Oga, I hope you know that this isn’t the way we go about things here. You cannot just come here and think you can decide when to write a statement. It is us who will determine if that is necessary or not.’ responded Officer Ajala, who seemed even angrier than Officer Johnson.
‘Well, I have spoken with your bosses who has advised that this is a smart way to go, after all, we are all citizens of this great nation’ responded Ambali very slowly. It was easy to see that he was trying hard not to lose his patience with the policemen. ‘You can call him and ask if he has spoken with my. My name is…’
“Okay oga, we know say you sabi DPO , what is this statement about?’ interjected Officer Johnson rudely. He usually did not take kindly to all these name dropping tricks, used by many people to lie about how important they were.


“This young man here has been accused of kidnapping Simisola Owen Browne, the daughter of Chief Owen Browne, so we were hoping to write his side of the story down’ explained Ambali
‘The same Owen Browne case? The one which is a classified case? How did you get to hear of it? Who accused him?’ asked Officer Ajala who was certain now that his instincts about these two were right. Their movement was very suspicious and he knew that he must detain them before these kidnappers were allowed to walk off freely into the city. He had seen this system used by criminals on his favourite detective shows, it was one where the bad guys often tried to pull the wool over the case by creating a fake alibi.
‘So, you think we don’t know your type ba?’ asked the Officer Ajala
‘I don’t follow’. replied Ambali.



Peter, who had hitherto been silent decided to speak up ‘Oga, I think you have gotten it all wrong. We are here to present my side of the story and my contact details so that you can see that I am innocent of all accusations and that you can reach me at any point in time’ explained Peter slowly, as though the officer could not process information easily.

‘Ehen na, I heard you. You are the one that is the kidnapper ba? And this other one is you accomplice. Not so? Oya, both of you should step behind this counter!’ he ordered
‘Why should we step behind the counter? What have we done wrong? When your boss arrives, you will find out that you are in big trouble o’ responded Ambali allowed his anger to blow out at this point.


Before Pius Ambali or Peter knew what was happening, the policemen had come over to their side and had begun to drag them in a police hold across to the back of the counter, where man others sat. They must have been there for long because they seemed uninterested in the drama that was playing out before them.


There were three rows of benches, pushed into the far corner of the room, behind the counter.


Unless one was on the look out for someone, it was totally possible to miss the people that had been confined to this space. The Officers dragged Pius and Peter to the last row, by the wall and forced them to sit there.
‘You kidnappers! how dare you threaten us or say that we will be in trouble. When Oga comes in on Monday, you will see what he will have to say about this!’ yelled Officer Johnson as he dragged Ambali by the waist band of his trousers.

‘Collect their phones, Let us teach them a lesson! You must never speak to an Officer of the Law like that!’ said Officer Ajala who proceeded to collect their phones.


Peter and Pius looked at each other disbelieving of how quickly they had lost their freedom by offending the sensibilities of the Officers. Ambali advised Peter to calm down for they would be free once the DPO resumed for duty. Upon hearing this, Officer Johnson turned to them and laughed in their faces.

‘You sure say you know our oga?’ he asked the policeman
‘Don’t you know that his family still lives in Zaria and he travels every Friday only to resume on Monday morning? Na here una go spend your weekend’ he said vehemently.

Peter and Pius looked at each other and began to protest vehemently. However, this fell on deaf ears as the Officers had moved on to other matters.

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