OANDO.(Chapter 1)

EPISODE 1

PROLOUGE

“I wasn’t running, I was trying to sc this” he raises his hands, holding up the flash drive for the entire court to see.

CHAPTER 1.

AY jolted awake from a dream. It had been a norm to have this same set of dreams for the past 4 weeks. It was blur images of the past, his past he has failed to recall fully, even though he had had salient details, details not enough to grant his freedom 10years ago, or so they said. His eyes quickly got adjusted to his room in a place he has now embraced as home. The old rickety bunk, the rusted galvanized pee bucket, the stainless pan used for as a sink, the walls plastered with names of past death troll inmates, exconvicts, many women with hidous crimes, and most importantly, the blue oversized jumpsuit pinafore. Everything was familiar, his cell, no 7. After he was sent here 10 years ago, he had become sturbon, ruthless and reckless. he had attempted to kill a nurse with a knife, and had infact stabbed her after a heatead argument. he was advised to get a lawyer, but because of the seriousness of the case, and its dominance in the whole media, “the late commissioners son’ every lawyer in that city wanted the case, not as the defence counsel, but as the counsel who would prosecute the son of a corrupt commissioner.

Anthony Akindele, his late father had pretented in being a respectable man in the political world. He was a virtus man, and upright. A rare kind anyone saw in politics today. Although he had studied a totally unrelatable course in his youth; engineering, unlike his peers who held masters degree in Pol science, he was top of his came. He was a strategist and had common sence when playing dirty. In his youth, politics was the last thing on his mind, but his then girlfriend who didn’t become his wife had been in the student union government, and had introduced him to the life of the little power and quick handout cash one could get in a university government. Then he had ran for his faculty president and had won. He began to meet big boys, and from there, ventured fully into the real life politics. He was first appointed into power as a local government chaiman’s PA, and from there, he grew his cartel. We would later discover who his cartels were, and what led to his eventual death.

Anthony met Tife’s Mother in a summit held in the government house. She was the anchor who worked for an event planning company. She had dressed nicely, and had spoken fluently. Then she captivated the eyes of many hungry politicians who didn’t care about their adjitating wives. He knew he was going to ask for her number, maybe for a one night stand, but she didn’t seem to be that kind of woman. He stared at her all night and noticed how she politly turned down the advances of those dogs. When he was done drinking and spent, he worked up to her and said “the night must be exusting” then from there, rest was history. They got married, she took in, they both named him Tife and with the semblance she had with her son, Anthony Adored her. He enrolled Tife in the best school, one which all his colleges children attended. He gave him virtually everything he asked for, and especially as a commissioner, cool cash rolled in, so he was not comfortable, he was satisfied. Their differences started to make domain when he wanted Tife to study law, but he wanted to become an artist instead. Two contrasting careers brought a cold war to the bi family. Tife’s persistence and Anthony’s love for him had won, and a year into school, and when Anthony had decided to air his discomfort in his academic performance, everything came crashing.

That faithful night, the news headlines had shown Anthoney’s pictures, and all the loot he had stolen in office. The DSS was quickly ordered to arrest him, a serch warrant was given to search is entir house and office. It had broken Tife, and that night, Anthony gathered his family, and ran. In a fatal car crash, Anthony had lost his life, Maria had internal bleeding, and Tife was injured slightly. The two were rushed to the hospital there after. A week later and tife was good to go. He was asked to hustle about 500k for his mothers treatment. That would be easy for a commissioners son, but Anthony’s entire properties and money had been seized and confisicated. Tife cleaned 6 uncompleted building in 2 days, he made 150k from it. Luckily, he had about 200k in his own personal account that wasn’t seized. That was 350 in total. Unfortunately, the hospital was strict about full payment before treatment. Maria died before he was able to gather the money. Broken, he asked for a refund of the 350, and they refused. They called it admission money. Outraged, he had stabbed a nurse, threatening to kill her if she didn’t give him his money. Some scared patience and co workers had called the police, and Tife was whisked away. 2 weeks later, a law suit had been slapped on his lap for attempted murder, and distruction of public property, arrest resist. Now he sort for a lawyer, any lawyer at all, but none came to his rescue.

His case drew near; the court had appointed Barr Mercy, a robost nursing mother to plead his defence. She had visited Tife only once and asked her to plead guily for a quick sentence and to save cost. Mayowa had fired her at first, but when she saw that she literally had no hope of winning without a lawyer, she hired her back. Mercy had reluctantluy accepted the case, and always grumbled about how her set colleges got billion dollar cases to set a decent food on their table, but she only got probono cases, or charge and bail. She blamed the ill luck on her gender, and relied on the unrebortable presumption that “it was a man’s world”. The two rivals started working hand in hand as the sitting day grew closer. Finally, she plead “not guilty” as if that would have changed anything.She was convicted in the trial court and on appeal. Eventhough Mercy had promised an appeal to the Supreme Court, it’s been 10 years now.

The click on her cell door twitched and her cell mate mounted down from the bunk; Cake, as she is fondly called a plump thief who had 6 more months to serve. The first week of her arrival at the prison, Mayowa was skeptica about making friends, or associating with “criminals” as she saw them to be. She was a deviant, she broke rules, picked fights and broke several bones. Then aftr her appeal, it dawned on her, that this was her life from then on. She tried to hold conversations with her sell mate Shiela, but she was a bitch who was living soon, and robbed it on all their faces. Mayowa was determined to mind her business, not until shiela called her a “dad killer” then Mayowa had broken her finger, literally. She was punished severly, sent to solitary for 7 weeks, total darkness, the silence was deafening and could make one go crazy. When she was released, she was assigned a new sell mate; Cake. She had bonded with this one, and they had shared many stories, amongst other things was their truths, and also the secrete behind her nick name “Cake”. The girls had planned to live as sisters in other to pass through their times together, but Mayowa knew it was going to be worse on her part when Cake leaves after her time. So she devised a means of associating better with the rest of the inmates, while minding her business. Instead of wallow in her sorrows, why not be productive.

Kuje prison Abuja had a policy of making prisoners, especially those serving life, work for their payroll…………………………………………………………….

For some reason, the chief warden was friendly with her. Mrs. Jumbo, a nickname the inmates called her

The prison guard appeard in her well ironed oversized uniform, Mrs. Ekaite who had her shift that morning announced “still reading? You have an appeal or something?”

“nah, I just find this quite interesting”

“whatever. Get dressed, you have a visitor”

“what!” she exclaimed.

The last time Mayowa received visitors was during the days of her granny, her late mother’s mother, who is now late aswell. Mayowa had been broken all over again on the unfiltered news of her demise. She was the only thing close to family left, and her demise rendered her all alone on earth. Maybe it was for the best. No one deserved having a relative in jail serving time. She had been lonely, and had lived with it ever since. She coped, burying her head into helping other inmates with their appeals, or divorce cases, or inheritance, letters of administration, etc.

“who could it be?”

The gurad shrugged. “iono, they are on suit, probably lawyers. Up! lets go” she tapped her cane on the burglary door.

Mayowa reluctantly stood up, and got chained; the feel of the cuffs irritated her. She followed Ekaite to the xxxxxxxxx and when she got into the visit ward, the men stood up. They were verily on suit, one was already growing grey, with wrinkles on his face, the other was younger, and very tall. They both stood on their feets when they saw her, and the tall one was taken aback when he saw the passive look on her face. Maxwell had worked for the presidential advisory committee for 12 years, and he always revered the looks of shock, sometimes fear on the faces of inmates whenever they came visiting. He knows they keep wondering what huge men on well tailored suits wanted, he knew sometimes, they screamed trouble. But this one was different. Her gesture was unreadable and she seemed too impatient to be in their midst. Maxwell knew her type; the over defensive ones. Most times, they were too difficult. Some of Maxwell’s colleagues don’t care about the inmates they send them to, they just pointblank drop the message with no preambles. But Maxwell is thorough. He knew Mayowa, and he knew the crime she was convicted for. He just didn’t know if she was actually guilty, or not. At this point, he didn’t care.

Mayowa sat down nonchalantly on the armchair provided for her, and the guared uncuffed her, and walked out.

“should I be worried?” she asked, looking at both men.

“no, no need for alarm, infact, we bring new tidings” the elderly man said. Maxwell was silent. He observed all her every move and gestures. Eventhough she showed a tough front, she was scared. Calm, but scared.

“hm. What do you want?”

“do you listen to the news here?” Maxwell finally asked

She chuckled “maybe if only you become the president, and provide us with Netflix, why not?”

She was sarcastic and he smirked,

“anyway, Miss Alaribe, the gobanitorial elections just recently completed, the new Government, giving back to the people, have decided to grant pardon to 15 inmates.” He noticed that Mayowa smirked, and brushed a hand through her nose, but she was listening to his every word, and this time, she could not hide her surprise.

“we’ve asked your warden to shortist 30 names of eligible inmates for the pardon, you name was the top 5, and we are interviewing all of you. so if you please comply with…”

“wait! Hm” she chuckled again, and this time, her sass was pissing Maxwell off. “so what, you interview 30 inmates, raise our hopes of freedom, and if we are eventually not chosen, you leave us out to dry, with our shattered hope huh?” she was laughing, but you could see the pain she felt. “and what, Pardon, like I am guilty?...”

“the law says you are” Maxwell said interrupting her for the first time. she looked at him, and this time, she was standing.

“really? The law says I am huh? Well, tell the law…” she was pointing at him “…the governor, even the president, heck! Whoever is listening, that I have suffered, and each time a ray of hope was shone and shattered, it broke every piece of me, and I have nothing else to offer. So please” she clapped her hands to gesture pleading “I am not interested in your pardon.” She looked at their stunned faces then turned to leave.

“guard!” she announced. Ekaite was quick to answer. Before they men could respond, she had already left. She went back to the library, Cake was sitting on her desk waiting for her.

“heard you got visitors. Lawyers?”

“yeah” she lied “they wanted info about one of the inmates I worked with.”

“what? Did you snitch”

“nah, client lawyers confidentiality” they both burst out laughing.

∞∞∞∞∞∞

Donald Dokpesi…………………….

∞∞∞∞∞∞

Mrs. Gracia was a drunk. She was committed to her job as the Kuja prison warden, but she was never sober, and in her drunken state, she manhandled these women. Her colleges hated working with her, and so was Mrs. Jumbo, the assistant warden at that time, whose only work was to buy ewagoin for Gracia at every interval. Then at odd hours, when no one was to sleep or drink on the job, Gracia would sneak Jumbo out of her office to get kai kai for her. She would take several shots, and pass out after wards. She hated snitches, she hated the inmates, she hated her colleagues, and so they all hated her too. Gracia exploited the inmates. To realease them from manual labour, she would sometimes ask for their payroll money, or for the rich inmates, they sent her money from their allies outside.

She was particularly in Business with Madam Cash, a pimp and a child trafficker who was serving time. She partnered with Madam Cash, and it was no longer an open secret that she favoured her much more than other inmates. Jumbo and other guards complained, but Gracia was their boss, and she was tough. Madam Cash was like one of the guards, she was invincible, and was a bully. She was untouchable because of her immunity, so everyone over looked what she does, no one knew she was planning her escape until it happened. That faithful night, the alarms rang of missing inmates. 5 of her close allies inside escaped with her. As the police dept were alarted, Gracia was out, as usual, dead drunk as Madam Cash made sure of it. That was also her last day as the chief warden. She was thrown under the boss, and fired by the government for all her misdeeds. That was how Jumbo took over, and became the acting Chief Warden till it was made official.

Mayowa was the first inmate Jumbo had the authority of sending to solitary confinement, and so she saw it as an honor, for someone who only bought Ewagoin and Kaikai. After 2 years, she released her, and advised her to pick a job. It was a motherly care she gave to disturbed inmates like Mayowa. She got closer to the inmates, and was friendly to her colleagues. She checked and balanced their healing process, and recommended the eldest women of good character for payroll. Just recently, she was asked to shortlist names for pardon, and she felt Mayowa was eligible. A little reward for a girl she had started off on a wrong foot with, a girl she thinks is innocent, and when she heared that KC decliened the offer, she wanted to know her reasons, so she summoned her into her office later that evening.

“you sent for me?” she asked as she came in head first, her eyes first searched her desk, but she later found Mrs. Jumbo by her coffee table. She was mixing the coffee she would drink to stay awake, a normal rutiene she does to avoid sleeping on the job.

“sit down KC.” She said without looking back. “how are you today? How was your day?”

KC shrugged “well, the usual, no new thing” she adjusted the arm chair and sat down.

“how are the girls generally?” she asked, slightly facing her, and turning her coffee with a spoon, then she takes a sip, and backs her again to continue her mixture. KC answered accordingly, but the small talks were making her tired.

“I bet you didn’t call me to ask about the girls ma?” she said, requesting to take an apple from her desk “may i?” Mrs Jumbo nodded.

“look Kenechukwku, I know you already know why you are here.” she finally said, heading back to her dest to sit opposite her.

“I don’t”

“oh don’t lie to me” she laughed. “you walked out on those men earlier today. Why?”

“hm” she smiled, chewing her apple. “how do I know that I would be selected?”

“you don’t. but it’s a risk worth taking”

“I cant Ma, im not that strong to raise such hopes, and have it shattered”

“believe me, I understand, I really do, but what do you haave to lose?” Jumbo asked, but didn’t get a reply. KC had stopped chewing her apple; she couldn’t even look at Jumbo. She was in a great delima.

“how long till I know if im selected?” she finally asked

“in May. May 10 precisely, and the release is effective immediately.” Jumbo to a long sip of her drink, and stretched out her hands to receive KC’s own. “you are actually stronger than you think” KC then looked at her in the eyes.

She had made her decision. Jumbo was right. What did she have to lose? Her life was over anyway. And incase it goes wrong, no one order than her would be hurt. She was fine by that, she could handle it. She knew that she had to take the chance, she had to start the interview, she had to atleast, put in her best, she was going to die trying.

“will you call those men back, im pretty sure I pissed them off?”

“not a problem” Jumbo said smiling and standing. This was a cue to KC that the meeting was over. She headed towards the door

“and KC?”

“yes?” she looked at her

“seal your lips, for now” and KC nodded, then left.

She went back to her sell, and tore out a piece of cardboard sheets, applied gum on it, and boldly wrote ‘May 10th’ then pasted it on the wall above her head. That was the first thing she saw when she opened her eyes every morning, the countdown to freedom had just begun.

Stay tuned for the next episode

@Hanzell @wakeupkitty @Leo_kitti @gertu13 @andromedavirus@andromedavirus @Ghostwriter please what do ya'll think about this ?