...rather a Blast! contd

In the early hours of Thursday, 28th February, 2008 around 1am, a friend of mine from the dormitory, Shuaib Adebayo came down to my house to tell me that all the Nigerian boys resident in the the Univer-City Complex(Male Dormitory) have been arrested by the Police. I told him that it was too late in the day for a joke like that but he told me He was being serious and that he was only one of two that escaped from the lot.
On getting to the Police Station around 1:30am in the morning, I met about 34Nigerian Boys, One Cameroonian and One Ivorien lined up in front of the office of the Case Officer.

I sought audience with the case officer who told me that my fellow students were not arrested as they claim. So, what are they being held for? Most of them have classes in the morning by 9:00am and they don’t know what they are being held for at close to 2am in the morning.
I told him that if I am not told why they are being held, I’ll give an order to the Nigerian boys to march out in ten minutes.
Five minutes later, a police officer came to me and took me to a side room and told me that an Iranian girl was assaulted and that they suspect a Nigerian of committing that atrocious act and that they have a suspect in particular, Francis Nnadi. I told him that is still not enough justification for arresting the Nigerian boys’ resident in the school dormitory.

What I still can’t fathom is that the supposed assault was carried out on the unlit way to the female dormitory and then based on the flimsy suspicion of a Nigerian, the police went to the boys dormitory which was about 2 to 3kilometres away from the supposed crime scene to arrest all the Nigerian Boys. They didn’t stop at that. They barged into their rooms which was being pointed out to them by a dormitory official by, slapped them and demanded for their passports. Those who dared to raise their voices or showed some form of resistance received blows and then they all were hauled to the Police station.
At about 3:30 am when I finally secured the release of the Boys, there was no single dormitory official in sight into whose care their various Parents/Guardians have committed their wards.
Later in the morning at around 10:15am, I was summoned to the Rectors Office. A while later, the General Secretary of the school joined us. He explained that the Police behaved in an unprofessional manner and that there was no concrete evidence that it was a Nigerian who committed the supposed crime. He said the police had wrongly based their suspicion on the fact that the girl or a witness had said the supposed assailant was an “Arab” which loosely translates into a black man in the Turkish language and that the supposed person was indeed referring to someone of Middle East Origin.

The school tendered apologies on behalf of itself and on behalf of the Police and said it was imperative to maintain the peace on campus. I reasoned along that there was no need letting the tempers fly so high about what has happened and I talked to most of the boys and they agreed with me.
However, Francis Nnadi was arrested later in the morning of the same day, taken to court the next day[Friday] and was held on the orders of the court over the weekend pending the outcome of the Police Investigation.

He was released about a week later when Police investigation showed that Francis was nowhere near the supposed crime scene.

As a result of the lukewarmness of the School Authority in dealing with the aforementioned issues decisively, the ISU President, Mr. Atif Hafeez resigned from his post.

Though, the matter has been largely forgotten now and frayed nerves calmed, I cannot think about this singular event which almost caused a free for all fight between my Nigerian boys and the Police when I got into a scuffle with one of them for assaulting Francis Nnamdi when they raided the boys dorm.
I wont ever forget the solid cooperation and courage that was shown by the boys in the face of Police Oppression and Brutality. Thank you guys...

In exacly one week from now, elections would be held to determine a new leader for the Nigerian Community.

A lot of things have happened over the past one year that I have learnt from, the memories of which will linger on forever in my mind...Thank you to everybody who believed in me and voted for me on the 4th of May, 2007.
As we march look forward to another round of elections in a week's time, It is time to reflect on what still needs to be done to place the Nigerian Student Body on a very sure footing within the ambit of the University.