How I got arrested for giving someone my number in church (Part 5)

Read part one , part two , part three and part four

At about 5am the next day, I got up from the floor and moved back to the chair. I wasn’t sure what lay ahead of me, but I was done worrying about it. I could only hope for the best. 

An hour later, there was a ruckus at the door. I looked up to see Chisom walking in with Mike and Mama Duke! They had arrested her and brought her in with an accomplice. I had gotten my miracle!

I hid my face from her while she got booked because I wasn’t trying to get offed. But then Mike pointed at me and said “This poor innocent girl has been suffering because of you. Do you know her?” For someone who had been trained by the CIA Mike was sure acting dumb. Anybody who’s watched crime dramas knows you don’t let the ring leader see the witness who gave them away. 

Thankfully Mama Duke didn’t recognize me because she denied me as though I was the criminal. “I don’t know her o! Do you know me?” she screamed. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at her before Chisom grabbed my hand and led me out of the station. 

The CSO was waiting in the car and they filled me in as they drove me home. While I was asleep at the station thinking they’d abandoned me, they were driving round town chasing leads to find Mama Duke and bring her in.

When they left me, they went looking for Mike and Titus. They found them at a bar outside the station, drinking the night away with no care in the world. Chisom warned that holding me wasn’t likely to lead to Mama Duke’s arrest and he offered to lead the operation to apprehend her that night. 

Mike and Titus told him that she couldn’t be caught. Apparently the woman was enough of a badass to have her own network jammer. Her communications could be traced but her location couldn’t. At least not with regular police equipment. Chisom’s agency was a different matter entirely. I don’t know who he works for and I don’t really care. All I know is they had the firepower to bypass Mama Duke’s jammer and find her house. 

Then Chisom led the team there and found the house completely unlit and guarded by two soldiers. Only in Nigeria can a criminal who’s wanted by the commander of the armed forces be guarded by his own military. SMH. 

Anyway the story gets even more ridiculous from there. So unarmed Chisom somehow manages to disarm both soldiers and get into the dark house where his unarmed self proceeds to arrest Mama Duke and her accomplice. 

I heard different versions of this story and one of them included a Babalawo but the most common answer to my questions was “you don’t need to know.” Mama Duke was arrested before and somehow disappeared while being guarded by two officers. How’d that happen? I don’t know. Is she still behind bars? Probably not. 

I’ve thought about that day many times. For days after, I couldn’t eat or sleep. I imagined people coming to get me and scouted my room for ways to escape. It was so bad, I considered jumping out of a third floor window. I didn’t tell my mum until months after and my father still doesn’t know. My mother rolled on the floor by the way. Yeah, she’s a typical Nigerian mum.

It’s ridiculous isn’t it? How an innocent action could unleash such a dangerous turn of events. How different institutions could come together to save an innocent girl. How God used a complete stranger to work on my rescue overnight while I slept. It’s positively mind blowing. 

And while I’ve lost all my faith in the Nigerian system, my faith in God has grown even stronger. I gave my number to a criminal in church and I got arrested by the Nigerian police, but against all odds, I survived. 

THE END