Episode one of my story can be found here
At the Police Station
We got to the station and I was taken to a room, told to sit down, and given a pen and a piece of paper. My cousin's mum, his sister, and the police officer all sat diretly opposite me on the same table. At this junction, the police officer asked for my phones again, this time, with a rather compelling tone. I complied and handed over my two phones (Blackberry bold and Sony experia, can't really remember the models again) to him so as not to appear deviant.
'I will be asking questions. You do not need to answer verbally but write your answers down on the piece of paper with you.' said the police officer.
'All right sir.'
I looked at the whole scene again. Took a look at my cousin's mum and sister, still yet to understand what the exact problem is and took the opportunity to ask again.
'Mummy. Aunty B. What is the problem?'
The policeman quickly interrupted and asked me to shut the fuck up.
'Do you know this woman in front of you?' The interrogation began.
'Haha. Yes, of course. She's like a mum to me.'
'Describe how she is to you on the piece of paper with you.'
I quickly put the answer down as instructed. I described fully how she is to me and how she could have easily pass as my own biological mother.
'Do you know that she own a car or cars?'
Still yet to understand the direction all this is going. I answered sincerely.
'Yes. I know she use to have two cars (one Honda civic, aka Honda babyboy and one Nissan SUV) but now she has only one.'
'Do you know what happened that she now has one car instead of two?' The policeman continued.
Wait! What the fuck is going on? Is this about her car that was stolen about 3-4 months ago? Could it be? How does it concern me? Could it be that I am being interrogated as a suspect? No, it can't be. Mummy cannot descend so low now, haba. A million and one thoughts were going through my mind as I put down my answer on the paper.
'Yes. One of her cars, a Honda civic, was stolen about 4 months ago.'
I was in far away Lagos when it happened and was only told when I visited Ife about a month after. One of her (my cousin's mum) granchildren who lived with her got really sick and had to be rushed to the hospital in a particular afternoon. The anxiety and the urgency of the situation made her to forget the car key in the ignition as she rushed the child to the emergency unit of the hospital. After the child has been stabilized to an extent was when she remembered that she left the car unlocked with the key still in the ignition. She quickly stepped out to correct the situation and to her surprise, the car was gone.
An alarm was raised and people swung into action. All the major roads in town were combed, report of a stolen vehicle was made to the police and advertisement went out on local radio stations within a short period. According to the report given to me, my cousin's mum went half-mad because of the car. Everyone around got to know that she purchased the vehicle on hired purchase and not halfway through with the payment.
Due to the fact that my cousin himself was not around when I got the report of the incident as well as the constraint of time, I never had the opportunity to visit my cousin's house in order to commiserate with the mum on the stolen vehicle. I, however, messaged my cousin via Blackberry messenger about it. I went as far as asking him for detailed description of the car - the colour, model, engine and chasis number, and registration number - along with one or two images in order to post on my social media pages. Who knows!
I was so deep in thought so much so that I did not know that the interrogating police officer has asked the another question. A bang on the table took me back to reality.
'Mr man! I said did you make a broadcast from the Blackberry messenger on your phone about a Honda civic car for sale on ............'
What! It is all coming together now. The final piece to complete the jigsaw has just been found. Truly, I made a BBM broadcast about a used Honda civic car for sale and sent it to everyone in my contact. It appears that my cousin's mum thinks the car I advertised was her stolen car, after all, both events are just a few weeks apart. In order words, my cousin's mum just ordered my arrest on the allegation that I stole her car. Unbelievable, right?
Which Honda civic did I advertised in my broadcast? I know you all are already asking. A friend of mine who is a car dealer was the one that sent me a message that his pastor wishes to sell his Honda civic because he was planning to buy another car. He sent me the message because someone close to me just bought a car from him through me. He felt I have got the connection for businesses and decided to inform me whenever he has stocks for sale.
It never occurred to me that my cousin's mum just lost her Honda civic to a thief and even if it did, I would never have relate the sale of a used Honda civic to that of the stolen one. To compound the whole situation, it was not like I saw the picture of the car that my friend's pastor wanted to sell - just the model.
What happened next? Was the I helped advertised for sale the same as the stolen car? I guess you all will have to wait for the final episode.
Thank you all for reading.