THE ARMED ROBBER WE HELPED

THE ARMED ROBBER WE HELPED

It was our final year class and one of our lecturers always liked to hold his lectures inside one of the classrooms inside the University Teaching Hospital. That day was no different but it turned out to be a spectacular day which changed my perception of how the system works forever.

We had almost ended the lectures and the Professor was doing more of a rehearsal after some students asked questions on grey areas where they needed to clear up. Our Professor was soft spoken and you had to pay apt attention to get to hear what he was saying and understand him. He was a gentleman to the core and by the way he always spoke about his wife when making examples one could deduce that he adored even the floor his wife stepped on.

It was while making one of those illustrations to elucidate his point that we heard the disturbing sounds. Initially, I had thought the sounds were coming from a damaged exhaust of a car. But when the next round of sounds started, it became obvious what we were hearing were gunshots.

It wasn’t the first time we were hearing gunshots during lectures. When we were freshmen, it was an almost weekly affair. I recall one night when we were reading, it was supposed to be one of our all night reading bouts which we used to call TDB because we read till day break when these group of cultists who were having their usual conflicts started shooting and everyone had to run away. On another occasion the cultists had been shooting during lectures and students started running helter-skelter, we heard one of the students got shut in the eye and later died (May her gentle soul rest in peace).

The frequency of gunshots became so much that students got used to it (this happens often). In an occasion when one lecturer was in class and was bullying some students (that was in my first year) some naughty students started arguing about how the man was a coward and if he continued his barrage, they would send him out of the class. What they did baffled me. When the class became silent, they threw banger outside the window (I guess those guys had planned the trick before that day). I can’t even describe the marvel on each student’s eye when the man jumped through the window and ran out of the class as quickly as his legs could carry him.

So on that fateful day, years later when we heard the gunshots, most of us who had gotten immune to the sound stayed put in our seats while some students ran outside the class. Immediately the gunshots ended, the excitement was so much that the lecturer had to adjourn the class to the following day while we all came out and discussed the subject.

It was while we were discussing that we saw a man limping, walk out of the bush towards us, he had a black trouser on and a tee shirt and had blood flowing from his legs. He had been shot. We immediately started an emergency care on him by tying up the region above the wound, he was told to sit and not move. I was more skeptical about how he came to be involved in the gunshot. We started to prod him with numerous questions.

He told us he was an innocent passerby, and that he did not know how the bullet got to enter his legs. While he was still responding to our prodding questions, some students who felt they were more empathetic to him immediately lifted him up to their shoulders and took him to the Accident and Emergency unit (they had to lift him up to reduce his mobility and hence blood loss).

However, they had barely returned after getting him admitted in the Accident and Emergency unit that a police patrol car met us in class and asked about the man who they had been chasing. When we told them some students had gotten him admitted, they immediately went there and got the man arrested. Now this got most of us worried and we decided to follow them to the hospital. We were more shocked when we realized we had actually helped an armed robber who had had a face – face gun battle with the Nigerian police.

When we got to the Police headquarters, we were surprised to discover that the “innocent, passer by” armed robber was actually a police man. He was bleeding profusely because the police officers who had been on his trail had barred the doctors from treating him and had taken him first to their office for interrogation.

It was there, because he had lost so much blood to the  point he looked anaemic that he started talking, he begged them to allow him to receive treatment first.

“I be one of una” he had said “ na Oga send me”

When he saw that his please were not yielding result, he resorted to blackmail.

“ Na oga send me” he began “Make una go ask Oga for upstair weda I dey lie” he begged them “ if una no treat me, I go talk, thank God say Press men dey here”

You can trust us to ensure there were pressmen. We had  close relationship with most of them and one of my classmates had called some media professionals.

One of the arresting Police Officers asked him  “so Oga know about your operation?”

“Yes” he replied “ abeg go ask am, if una no help me I go talk”

The police officer went upstairs and discussed with the “Oga” then he came back and shocked all of us. He walked straight to us and ordered us to remove all visible phones and electronic gadgets. Then he ordered the pressmen to go into a room where they were to be addressed by “His Big Oga” when they had left, he removed his pistol and shot the man at close range on his forehead. Then he blurted “You fool, you wan talk” and left.

We were shocked and did not wait for him to shout at us (which he did by the way) before we all scrambled off to our various houses. Too shocked to speak, we looked forward to seeing the news in the media the next day but there was a concerted media silence.

We couldn’t fathom who the “Oga” was that had sent the man and his other colleague (Who ran away). But one lesson was learnt that day. Each person living in Nigeria is directly responsible for his own security and that personal security should be taken seriously because to be honest no one cares.

We should take our security more seriously and be security conscious.

Thank You.