Around five minutes after 5pm, I left my working place for home. When I got to Kuda junction near my home, in Lagos, I saw a crowd beating up a young man of 20 to 24years. I asked the people around what the problem was and they told me
"that boy Na Thief!! We just catch am now now!!"
" Thief wetin!!!" I exclaimed. My brain sparked like a faulty electric connection and it ignited an emotional explosion I never knew I had in me.
Around this period last year, I was robbed at gun point by three robbers at this very junction. Luckily for me, one of them was caught by some brave young men while they were fleeing. The young men wanted to beat the robber, but as an educated man, I stopped them. I told them we should not put the law into our hands, and the best thing to do is to hand him over to the Police. And that was exactly what we did.
At the Police station, I was asked to write a statement, as the victim and the complainant, which I did and the robber was locked up. They told me to come back the next day for further instructions and investigations on how we were going to get my stolen money and belongings and the rest of his colleagues.
When I got to the station the next day, I was shocked to discover that the robber has been released on bail. I fumingly confronted the Police officers present that they have no right to release the suspect without my knowledge as I was the one who ordered for his arrest and it was glaringly obvious he was a robber. That was when I was made to understand what "right" really means, according to Naija Police Officers.
The officers pulled an uno-reverse card on me and accused me of blackmailing an innocent citizen and conspiring with people already at large to maltreat him based on false and made up accusations. They threatened to arrest, detain, and charge me to court. They told me " if you no want problem, you go bail yourself for here or else we go lock you up." Everything was just like the drama series my then girlfriend used to watch. To cut the long story short, I had to "bail" myself with the sum of 20,000 Naira.
Ever since then, I, Ahmed Kuti, vowed never to show any form of mercy to any thief or robber ever again in my life. If I violate this vow, may Ogun kill me anywhere I stand that accursed day.
So when I saw the people who caught this thief, hitting him with love taps and fragile hands, I knew they needed my iron and strong hands. So I joined them to deal with him mercilessly. All his pleas fell on deaf ears as I took charge to beat and pulverize him to a pulp.