The tribulations of Adamu
Adamu is a real person. He is from Nasarawa state and I hired him as a security man in April 2017. He speaks a fair amount of English and is gentle and well-behaved. Less than a month after I hired him, Adamu was in a lot of trouble!
He was off-duty on Saturday May 6, 2017 and thought he could grab some small purchases at “Itedo”-a slum within Lekki Phase 1 where the drivers, house-girls and house-boys, and security men of the wealthy upper middle class residents in the neighbourhood go to buy things including food. I go to Itedo too, usually to buy fruits, plantain, peanuts and such. Adamu was very unlucky however that particular day as it was the day officers of “task force” were destroying Itedo, which, like many of its equivalents spread over Lagos, is an illegal and possibly crime-infested settlement. So in the interest of public safety, security and urban planning, the Lagos State Government had made the decision to destroy Itedo. As Adamu strolled leisurely into Itedo that Saturday morning, he did not know that “the road was hungry” and minutes later, he was in the back of a security truck heading towards detention by “task force”!
Since Adamu was off-duty, and his “people” are back in Nasarawa, no one would miss him for the next few days so he would sleep in an over-crowded cell somewhere in the “task force” premises until Monday May 8, 2017. The first order of business when you fall into the clutches of task force and other security agencies in Nigeria appears to be the confiscation of your phone so Adamu is isolated, alone and desolate and he can call neither his employer, his friends or his family back at “home”. For Adamu it seems his whole world has come crashing down!
On Monday morning, May 8, 2017 Adamu is brought before a magistrate in a mobile court. It is not clear what his offence is? Wandering? Vagrancy? Walking in an unauthorized place? Walking without permission? Wrong walking? Suspicion of committing a crime? Thinking about the possible commission of a crime? In spite of my legal background I can’t quite figure out what crime Adamu could, on the facts, have been charged with, but he is charged all the same, and he takes the advice of a resident “charge and bail” lawyer to plead “not guilty”. Case is adjourned for about eight days and Adamu gets back into a security vehicle for his next journey-to Badagry prison! For once since his ordeal began, Adamu meets some mercy as he is allowed two minutes to make a phone call. He calls his fellow security man, another fellow from up-North who also works for me. That one messes up Adamu’s fate. Adamu tells him he is being taken to Badagry prison, but that night the idiot recalls “Gbagada” as he reports to my driver!
As I visit every police station that could conceivably be described as “Gbagada”-one in “Charly Boy”; another in Medina Estate; one other in Atunrase Estate; another in Ifako; and a final one in Pedro, it is clear there is something wrong about that wild goose chase to Gbagada! Why would an individual “arrested” (or is it “abducted”) in Itedo inside Lekki Phase 1 be taken to any police station in Gbagada, on the mainland? Anyway after exhausting the plausible options that could conceivably be “Gbagada”, on the night of May 10, I go to Maroko Police Station in Lekki and demand to know who “operated” in Itedo on Saturday May 6, 2017 and where they could conceivably have taken my security man! A possible breakthrough here-it was task force that “operated” and their “captives” are usually taken to some yard in Bolade-Oshodi! By this time Adamu had spent a total of four nights in detention-two in the task force cell at Oshodi and two as an awaiting trial inmate in Badagry prison!
I send someone from my office to Bolade-Oshodi who confirms after initial roadblocks that indeed Adamu has been “processed” through their records. Since he has been taken before the court, we should engage a lawyer. Luckily I decide (since I still have my name in the roll of lawyers in Nigeria!) to visit the place myself on May 16, 2016 (ten days after Adamu’s tribulations began!) and it happens to be the day he is brought to court on the adjourned date. Adamu in ten days had emaciated considerably and I will never forget the look I saw on his face as he saw me-it was of a man who had lost all hope; who had suffered and was beginning to accept that perhaps he was destined to suffer much more; but who upon sighting me had some hope restored in him. Yet Adamu’s trials were not yet over! As we tried to establish our approach to secure his freedom, due to some communication gaps, the court adjourned his matter again, for another nine days. All we could do was provide some “funds” for Adamu’s comfort duly deposited in the hands of his custodians! Adamu made the long journey back to Badagry, but this time with some hope that next time he came out of there, he might with some luck regain his freedom.
Adamu was indeed set free on the next adjourned date, May 25, 2017. He spent a total of 19 days in “prison” and it remains unclear what his offence was-walking in Itedo! Indeed when he returned, Adamu explained to me he was going there to search for some gardening equipment I had asked him to ascertain the cost of, so even though I didn’t realise it then, I was actually responsible for his trip in that direction. But then maybe his crime was not carrying identification papers on the day? Or not having sufficient cash on him to “appease” his captors? In the end, Adamu’s real offense was being poor and looking the part!
Opeyemi Agbaje