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Country No Vex
By Felix | February 21, 2008
For the first time in my life, I was happy to be arrested, because the police intervention on that faithful day at the beach more a less saved us from being burnt like common criminals by the jungle justice rule of an irate Lagos mob. Now this story will be more understood by those who have been regulars on this site or those who must have read the following posts on my story. Bang Bang, Jack Robinson and Jungle Justice, in the order they are written.
After about 2hours of being badly beaten, around 1:30a.m Friday night or should I say Saturday morning, we were handed over to the police men, who drove us straight to the bar beach police station, took our names without any statement, obviously because were we mostly still covered in blood, I was bleeding from my head where one of the soldiers had hit me with the nuzzle of his rifle, I felt more pain in my eyes when the blood from my head trickled down into my eyes than from my head where I had been hit. The clock on the police counter just hit 2a.m and we were locked up.
In the cell, the inmates seeing our state that night, covered in blood and already badly injured left us to ourselves, the marshal gave us a common cell to sleep in that night with a sound warning to have our rent ready first thing in the morning.
Yes you heard me right … rent. Now in jail cells in Nigeria, the life is quite different. Like in any society there is a head, in this case he is referred to as the Marshal. He gives the rules and collects rent from fresh inmates, of course that is after his welcome party must have given you a few slaps or a good beat depending on how you react towards them. This rent is used by the marshal to feed the house at his own discretion and he also saves up from here for his bail if his offense is minor.
Knowing the rules already, since I wasn’t a first timer, I woke up quite early, arranged with my friends, since we didn’t have the rent money, we had 2options, either to mutiny the marshal and take over or get beat, so we vied for the first option. This wasn’t really difficult as he had only one other backup, so it was 2 of them against 4 of us. They gave in easily, after a few slaps from us of course, it was barely 6hrs since we were arrested and we had taken over. Now it’s was time to face realities, we had to get in touch with home and arrange our bail or so we thought.
First visitor we had was my younger sis, who was alerted by one of my friends that was lucky to have escaped the episode with the area boys. She came with food and water and I gave her the fine details of what had transpired before we were told to write our statements that morning. I also got to know the case we were charged with was Armed Robbery about the worst case in Nigeria because if found guilty, you faced death or sometimes you faced death before getting into a court room. This was a hard one to swallow.
To cut the long story short, Monday morning when we thought we were to be set on bail, we were transferred to kpanti a divisional Headquarters, here we felt the magnitude of the case because of the treatment we got.
No do no do, you do am, so tay alarm come blow, let your sense correct.
This is the first thing you learn in Country No Vex, another name for kpanti cell. The slogan I stated above is more or less your visa into this country, for the benefit of those who don’t understand pidgin English, let me try and paraphrase the slogan in simple English. “ don’t do it, don’t do it, you did, till you got in trouble, use your head next time”. I hope that did it… (lol). Anway simple means careful when losing your temper or you might get in big trouble.
Back to the story … The welcome party in kpanti is much different, we just left our domain where we were the marshals, and were taking to a bigger cell where you meet harden criminals.
Kpanti Cell 1, … this is where you find the criminals who were caught in the act, or thieves who had had cross fire with the police, some of them still had fresh bullet wounds, we had people who had stayed for a period of 24hrs to 8months, the marshal here had like 10 other guys for back up, and they were bigger fierce looking guys, we didn’t stand a chance here. Before getting to the gate of the cells, we already saw like 6boys jumping with enthusiasm waiting for us the ‘fresh meat’ to come in. I told my guys to keep it calm and not think about fighting, because evaluating the situation, I knew these guys outnumbered us and they were bigger so we didn’t stand a chance.
One of my friends was thrown into the lions den first, being stubborn, he retaliated the slap he was given with a punch and this made them mad and like 11boys were on him beating and punching, while this was going on we were also pushed in and they faced us likewise, for like 5minutes with good slaps and then we were lined up for orientation.
The first thing was, you strip yourself naked as the day you were born, and then they exchanged your fresh boxers for theirs (which must have been worn for about a month or more). Then the marshal comes out and the state rules are read out… and it was time to pay the states fees and sitting down fees. Of course we didn’t have this, so it was time for ‘ajuwire’. It works like this,… you stand naked, 2 guys stand facing each other in front of you and at your back and each time the marshal says ‘ajuwire’ you have 4 hands slapping your chest and stomach and 4 hands slapping your back all at once.
Now I don’t want to start describing the pains here, so let’s skip it, soon as they are done with that you are sent into an inner room of about 10ft by 10ft, this has like 40 or more boys sitting on the floor with their knees raised and legs apart, so there can be space for another person to sit in between your legs. We had about 5 rows like this with about 8 to 9 boys on each row and a few who had been there longer sitting at the sides of the walls where they can rest their backs.
Overcrowded was an understatement and the least of the problems here, the room was also pitch black, so it was hard telling the time of day it was and with over 40boys who most of them hadn’t taken a bath in weeks, the stench was terrible and there was no window in this room, so ventilation was out of it and whenever there was an argument in this room, (which was a steady occurrence), the bigger boys came in marching, kicking and belting, the rest of it I’ll leave to your imagination. A quick picture what that day felt like, we had gone through a thorough beating before being kept in a pitch black room, that stank like hell, from the sweat and blood of the inmate with bullet wounds, because of space, our bodies definitely rubbed against each other and with sweat from both bodies the discomfort was terrible.
As if this wasn’t enough as the latest inmate we were to toshiba (i.e waving a tshirt up and down to generate cool breeze) the marshal and his men till dawn, … yes till morning we were to toshiba them to sleep… if you stop or sleep off, this means they start sweating and wake up, and you don’t want your night to be worse than it already was…
Will continue with day2 tomorrow, the Anthem and pledge of Country No Vex and how I survived almost 1month in this pit …
Topics: my story |
February 21st, 2008 at 1:16 pm
Free “Felix Mandela” now………lol
February 21st, 2008 at 2:04 pm
This shows the extent of decay in the Nigerian Police force. The police needs to be Re-organised, re-cleansed Spiritualy(They have always been cleansing.May be adding spiritual, will buttress my point), Revamped(plz pardon me 4 my slance), re……. I think they need all the “Re” in the dictionary to correct the police in Nigeria. It so annoying when they presecute without even investigating. A lot needs to be corrected in the system.
All your stories leads to one issue. You guys were wrongly detained because the police didnt do a proper investigation if you guys were rope in or set-up. MAY GOD HELP SO MANY SOULS IN THE POLICE CELLS IN NIGERIA THAT MIGHT BE SURFFERING SAME FAITH DUE TO THE CANCER OF WRONGS BATTERING THE POLICE. AMEN!!!
February 21st, 2008 at 2:59 pm
People who act in spite of their fear are truly brave and ur one,hail felix, the man with 9 lifes.
Thumbs up.
February 21st, 2008 at 3:54 pm
It is horrible to think that the situations you described really happened. I tried imagining myself there and I almost gagged (sitting in my cool office). It’s unimaginable!!!
However, this is another reminder that God is good! He was watching, and He brought you out. Let’s give Him glory!!!
The Nigerian Police? We will continue to pray…
February 21st, 2008 at 4:49 pm
This might sound unreal to thoes who have no idea how rotten d system have become!!but d fact is,sadly dis is 4real!! its touching knowing ppl actually go through such a disgusting experince all for notting..today bro!! uve become a man through all dis!!NEVA LET GO!!
February 21st, 2008 at 9:58 pm
I AM TOTALLY OUTRAGED at the inhumane treatment and housing of humans that have never been found guilt of any crime, it sickens me to think of how many have been degraded from all form of dignity due to the vane behavior of humans, that are no higher or better then their fellow brother !!! I pray that our Father has mercy, on each and everyone of them that hold themselves above others, who claim judge n jury on their own. They too will be judged as they have judged. HOW can Africa ever become a great nation under God when the people in office have forgotten God. I WILL pray for your Nation to over come the diseased sickened minds that have forgotten humanity. .. I thank God Felix that you have made it threw all that u have to tell your story and i pray that someone in office will see the damage, the discuss of their officials and make changes for the better for your nation. hagn sweetie xxx
February 22nd, 2008 at 2:38 pm
mr felix is indeed a man with nine lives,he is one of those people who are causing a revolution in the world.God bless nigeria though the police force needs re-orientation.adex
February 22nd, 2008 at 6:33 pm
What???!!!
I wish some top police official could read this. Thank God for you.
February 23rd, 2008 at 8:35 pm
It was hurrible when i saw my only brother in such a situation. He had encountered the police before,but this……was something bigger than what we could handle.I got there and definately i had to pay them(the police) first before i could see him, went thru an interrogation session,if it wasnt my brother,i think i would have just left,cos they were even tying to oppress me.I just thank God almighty for his mercies upon my brothers life.
February 25th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
I have known Felix for long time now, and I know him as a hero, I am not surprise with his stories because I was very sure he will tell the story one day, many of you may not know what is talking about, or may not understand the experience this young man has in life, but people like me and some other close friends knows what he went through that very period, God is wonderful for using Felix to touch many souls and more grace to a mother who gave birth to a man like Felix.
April 9th, 2008 at 11:03 pm
is this another 24 season or what, jack baur’s story is under treat then, man u are a survivor, what?!!!