THE VERDICT

ESE
He quickly thought about one of his old friends who was a private
inspector. If he was going to be vindicated from a crime he didn't commit, he would have to go back to the scene where it all started to get the facts right. He asked to make a call and he was granted so he immediately called Mohammed.
"... your boy is in trouble...I need your help now." Dele said with
panic in his voice. He knew Mohammed was the best man for the job but he wasn't sure how he was going to solve the mystery in one day. He needed more time but it was impossible to convince anyone as the victim was a superior sergeant. Femi had his gun that very day but he never fired.
He knew he couldn't have been so careless that a shot be fired from his own gun and he wouldn't have known about it. The only information that baffled him was that the shot fired was from around the corner where he sat.
"Did someone set me up?” he wondered continuously and Muhammad arrived to visit him.
"Who were the officers present that day and what working
relationship do you have with them?" Muhammad asked fully ready for work.

PEACE

”My Oga... There were three other officers with myself and the
inspector. And we're all good. We’ve never had any rancor or a reason to" Sergeant Femi said with a swollen face.
Muhammad removed his glasses letting it dangle on his chest with the lace around his neck keeping it in place. He wiped his face and stirred unconvincingly at Femi. Then snorted out; “Are you sure?”
Without waiting for response he picked up and left for the crime scene where he searched for traces of any clues to help his old friend.
Sergent Femi was more than convinced that there was an outsider, who had taken the shot. Halfway through the bush around the shade, Muhammad stopped in his tracks.
"Can you remember who else was there when the shot was taken
aside the officers on duty with you?" Muhammad asked on his return to the station. Femi tapped his head severally in a bid to recall. Suddenly, some came flooding in.
“Yes, yes… a young man looking all scruffy, dark skinned, average

height, with dark brown eyes. The officers were checking his papers or something” Femi said sharply. Muhammad nodded in approval. He was convinced now that the investigation had a strong lead, but how to get one of the officers to agree with him had him 

perturbed.

DORCAS

Having concluded the ritual processes in three days, Dele and Faji
prepared to return to Lagos - their abode. As their custom was, they never plied the same route they came by. However that fateful day, their plan took a different turn.
"Faji, that route is shorter,” Dele said. “Trust me we can go by it
again". He added.
"E be like say you wan die abi? Which time we don take one road two times?" Faji replied in a pidgin be laden tone.
"I've never seen dumb police men like those ones we met before,
believe me. No one even took any cognizance of our identity. Didn't you see how they fled like puppies?” Dele said mockingly.
"This plenty English wey you dey talk dey worry you. Me I never
wan die. I wan enjoy my money for long o. But na true, nothing fit happen.
Na the first time your English dey produce better talk be this. Oya make we take am." Faji concluded.
They hummed along as music blared from the speaker of the car,
each one thinking of how to spend his billions from the just concluded ritual.
"Fuck their father. Who say money no sweet?" Faji screamed in
ecstasy.
“Without money hide your face… Or how did that popular artiste
say it again?”
“If you no get money, hide your face…” Faji corrected him as their
laughter faded to a comfortable silence – each man lost in his own ecstatic thoughts. They couldn't wait to enter into Lagos not with the numerous parties laying in wait for them.

SANDRA

Their joys were short lived however. Muhammad had taken the mission very personal and had questioned every officer on duty by hook or crook as they prepared to lay the body of the commandant to rest in a couple of hours by the cemetery which happened to be close to his last duty post in his locale.
Soon a green rickety Peugeot came rolling by with no intention to stop.
“You should slow down. We’re almost at the check point.” Dele said amidst the smoke filled car.
“Maa pa wan danu. I go kill any motherfucka wey stand for road
today.” Muhammad and the other officers in duty rushed and opened fire at the vehicle refusing to stop after flagging them down severally.
After the vehicle hit a tree trunk, one of the police officers identified the one of the boys as the same young man at the check point the day the commandant was killed. Searching the car, they found some huge sums that were un accounted for and some weapons including a hunting gun at under the seat of the car.
It was identified as the bullet that killed the commandant years after
Sergeant Femi had been hung to death for the crime he really had not committed.

THE END

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