ME: yes yes!!!, I’m onihaxy, what happened to him please?
CALLER: I’m Tunde, a legal practioner.
ME: so what happened to segun please?
CALLER: He purchased a stolen phone from someone,
ME: a stolen phone?
CAlLER: yes, that’s not all, the phone was inside a SUV and both the car and the phone was stolen at the same time. So the phone was traced to him. So he has been charged for armed robbery.
ME: huuh, when did it happen?
CALLER: since last week.
ME: where is him now?
CALLER: he is in the police custody and may be charged to court any moment from now unless we find the person who sold the phone to him or we settle the police so as to prevent the case from getting to court, but I’m not sure the second option will be possible because the owner of the phone and car wanted the matter to get to court,
ME: heeeeeee.
CALLER: since I’m the lawyer working on his case, he gave me your number to call you and inform you about what happened to him.
ME: eyah, I have been trying his line since last week and it wasn’t going through. I have been so worried.
CALLER: yes, the phone is with the police. let’s just keep praying we find the seller of the phone because he eloped immediately he heard segun was arrested.
ME: ok sir, thank you sir, is this your number?
CALLER: yes
ME: ok thanks, I will save it and give you a call.
CALLER: no problem. Bye
I became so weak and restless.
“He must have been badly beaten by now”
” Na crime to buy phone from someone now oo”
“I just wish I can see him right way”.
” He must have been seriously injured by now”.
“And I know segun too well, he doesn’t do crime except for some minor “yahoo yahoo” he did in the past”.
“But why must he purchase phone from someone?”
“What if he will be eventually sentenced to jail?”
“Who would be his replacement in my life?”.
I was so lost in thoughts until one of my team members came to my desk and banged the table, that was when I came back to reality. I just managed to finish my daily target at work that day because I wasn’t happy and I wasn’t myself, my only best friend is in police custody and might go to jail. Funmi noticed my mood that day and enquired about what was happening to me but I told her I was fine. I closed for the day at 6pm and I went home. I was still worried and unhappy, I thought about everything that had happened between us, how we have both went through the thick and thin together, everything we shared and I was shedding tears as my best friend was on his way to jail. I prepared noodles that night and I couldn’t eat it.
At around 8:30pm, I picked my phone and wanted to talk with the lawyer and I discovered my phone was off, I then remembered I switched it off immediately after receiving his call when I just didn’t feel like talking to anyone. I switched on the phone and I got a message from the lawyer saying “hi, I have been trying to call you but your number is unreachable, please call back when you get this message”.
I got scared again and was thinking what could be happening, I checked my airtime balance and found just 4naira credit on my phone, I flashed the guy and he called back.
ME: hello, I just saw your message, my phone has been off since.
TUNDE: yes, I called you but your number wasn’t reachable. I wanted to give you updates after leaving the police station this evening.
ME: ok, what is the update?, any good news?, has my friend been released?,
TuNDE: the police said if we are able to raise 100k before friday evening which is tomorrow, he will be released and the police will forget and scrap the case.
ME: haaa, that’s too much money oo.
TUNDE: you just have to act fast, because after tomorrow and the money is not available, he will be taken to court on monday morning, and from the look of things, its likely for him to get atleast 6years jail.
ME: ok, have you made any contact with his relatives?
TUNDE: no, none of his relative is aware, he said he doesn’t want them to know about it so as not to put them in tension.
ME: haa,
TUNDE: please, don’t inform his family please, only his few selected friends are aware of it.
ME: so what do we do now?
TUNDE: just try and arrange for the money and send to me tomorrow morning so as to work on it faster. The earlier the better.
ME: I don’t have that much at hand at the moment sir, what do I do now?
TUNDE: just try and send the money to the account number I will send to you as a text after this call, its very important if you don’t want your friend to go to jail.
ME: ok sir, let me see what I can do
TUNDE: just do something fast about it. And please, don’t inform any of his family please.
ME: ok sir
TUNDE: ok, I will call back tomorrow morning. Pls try and get something before then.
ME: ok sir
TUNDE: bye.
A text came in after the call and I checked, it was an account number from the lawyer. I sat down on my bed and I started thinking of where to get money before the next day to send to this lawyer. The only person that came to my mind was bimpe. “But how do I tell her that I needed that huge amount?, and the worst thing was that how do I tell her I needed it for segun?. On the other hand, I began to think this could be a scam. How can someone be locked up and his family would not be aware of his arrest?.