Must Read: Wasted Years: The Ordeal Of A Pastor

7 years ago

Must Read: Wasted Years: The Ordeal Of A Pastor

My body was burning hotly when I woke up coupled with the throbbing headache which made me to be groaning loudly to the extent that peoples miles away can hear
‘will you stop making noise my friend, your parent sent you to school but you go and join cult group,you’re now disturbing the other patients with your yeye noise’ a female voice harshly lambasted me, then it dawn on me that we are already In for it, I navigated round the room to saw osagie lying on a bed beside me, with his left wrist handcuffed, I saw two armed police men standing around my bed staring at me mischievously,I found out my back was being aided by a plastic spinal cord-like object,hot tears escaped from my eyes as I thought of I spending the next years in the prison,I thought of what would have happened since I was lying there unconscious,I cried as I thought of what would have happened when Cynthia heard about what has occurred,when my parent heard of it,my siblings also.

‘cry as you like,you think that will make government released you,foolish boy’ a roughly dressed police man said, I stared at him with an evil gaze and wish that he had said so in the last one week and see what would have happened to him. The hostile nurse came to me and emptied a liquid filled syringe in my buttock which made me relapse back to sleep
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‘Mike, how far now’ I heard a voice calling me and I woke up to see osagie sitting on his bed with clutches by his beside him
‘Osagie, what has happened’ I asked him in a weak voiceless
‘guy, plenty don happen o,you’re even lucky to be hit or you would have among these’ he said as he showed me a copy of the nairaland’s daily newspaper,I was shocked to see the picture of uche,blade and co with some of richard’s boys on the front page of the popular paper, I was happy that I was hit by the bullet which placed me under intensive care shielding me away from the embarrassment but the happiness was short lived as I flipped to the second page where the school management stated that ‘the following students have been rusticated from the university!, they include our passport photograph and matriculation number in the post,I started weeping again as I remembered that my father hardly missed the paper, I imagined the number of peoples who would have saw my picture,
‘guy, na on Monday we dey go court o,’ osagie interjected as I increased my tears,’ this is the nigga that shoot you’ he said pointing to one of richard’s men in the newspaper’ I cursed the guy inwardly
‘What happened to others’ I asked him in a feeble voice again
‘Edwin was shot dead by the police when trying to escape likewise me but am lucky it hit my leg,uche and co were arrested and some escaped,’ then he added slowly ‘I wish I could help you mike but this condition you are is terrible’.

I stared at him trying to decipher what he meant but could’nt get it, he lied back on his bed and sleep off immediately
‘Guy, its time for your injection’ the voice of the hostile nurse entering the room closely followed by the policemen wake me, I removed the blanket and I was injected before sleeping.
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‘where is he, how the hell did he do that’ an angry voice woke me up early in the morning,I looked at the owner of the voice and saw that it was the DPO shouting at the two jittering policemen guarding us,
I looked at osagie bed only to saw it empty then it dawn on me that OSAGIE HAS ESCAPED, I shed tears as I remembered his statement’ I wish I could help you mike but this condition you are is terrible’
Because of osagie’s act, the police were not willing to take chances with me again as they asked the doctor to finished whatever treatment they are administering on me that day even though the doctor told them that I would need a month or two before recuperating fully, they refused and told the doctor that they don’t care whatever the consequence may be
The court was filled with crowd consisting of student,staff and the general public,I alighted from the police car that took me there and was pushed to the black maria that brought uche and the rest, I was pushed cos I have been confined to a wheel chair though the doctor said it was for the mean time, the press kept taking our picture as we proceed to the courtroom
‘Micheal,see what you have brought upon yourself,its unfair,its really unfair and I warned you o,’ I heard the unmistakable velvety but grief-filled voice of Cynthia,I was tongue-tied as she keep wailing as she was barred from coming close by the armed policemen,
‘Micheal’ I heard an innocent voice calling me,I looked david and my brother james and couldn’t keep the tears again,
The court process was going smoothly, the government lawyer was really bent on making sure we were killed as he keep bringing out offences ranging from illegal possession of ammunition to murder and others, the defence lawyer lawyer employed by my brother I guessed, tried to defend me by giving reasons like I joined cult group because of intimidation and all others, I am the only one that employed the service of a lawyer out of us allu

‘kudos to both the prosecuting and defense counsel’ the judge started after the lawyer rested their case ‘this will serve as a lesson to all other cultist out there,their activities have caused a lot of harm to innocent student there in school,according to research,as at September 2003,5,000 students and lecturers have died in Nigerian campus as a result of cult related violence clashes,the peace on campus is adversely affected whenever there is cult invasion,time without number,academic session in these institution have been brought to standstill due to cult violence,so to discourage young graduate who are supposed to be leaders in future from joining this trigger-happy cultists,
This is my judgement’ he said and paused to look around,I shifted uneasily on the wheelchair glancing toward the direction of my brother,who is concentrating fully on the judge looking pensive
‘I hereby sent all these cultist offenders to 12-years imprisonment without an option of fine’ he said and withdrew to the inner chamber immediately

‘court’ the court secretary shouted stressing the word. I looked around as the police approached us in the dock and lead others to the the black maria while I entered the car that brought me,I saw my brother shaking his head sadly as he kept staring at the car till it was out of sight