As he took a
closer look at the corpse in his arms, the boy looked even younger than Emeka
had earlier imagined. There was no way he was over 10 years old. “Oga, na your
pikin? Abi na you kill am?” the first officer asked as he motioned to Emeka who
was still in shock, on his knees with the boy’s bloody head resting on his
thighs. The question irritated him. “How dare you, ask me such stupid and
insensitive questions?!” Emeka shot back at the MOPOL who casually chalked a circle around the boy’s corpse. “You
are a very foolish man! If he is not you pikin, comot there make we do out work
abeg” Emeka was utterly disgusted by the policeman’s attitude but he decided
that he wasn’t going to get drawn into a verbal exchange with the illiterate,
junior officer. He walked over to the 4x4 Toyota Hilux which the policemen had
arrived in. There were three other
officers listening to various accounts of the incident from a few other
eye-witnesses. “Who is the commanding officer here?” Emeka interrupted. “Yes,
how can I help you?” one of the officers asked. He was a well built dark
skinned man, with very precise Fulani tribal marks just like those of the face
of the poor little boy lying dead in the street. The officer looked more distinguished than
the rest of his men in his distinct blue and black uniform. “That boy was with
an old blind man before the accident but the fellow has disappeared now. I
think you might want to investigate that” Emeka gave a concise description of
the man and excused himself. He had to go and prepare for his trip.
## This is an excerpt from something I am working on.
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