Detective Tolu Akindele was a highly decorated member of
a special unit of the Nigerian Police Force. They were known as the Domestic
Violence Unit (DVU). Due to the rise in the call for more protection for women
and children against domestic abuse in 2013, the Federal Government had
approved the formation of this unit with a sole focus on investigating and
prosecuting cases of domestic violence. Detective Tolu has given the last two
years of his life to this unit and his precinct had seen a drastic decline in
the rate of unprosecuted cases. The success of his unit had led the FG to
increase their funding and expand their jurisdiction to cover the entire
nation. On the surface of things, he looked like a hero, one who dedicated his
efforts to battered and abused women and children. Why then was he being
arrested and charged with the murder of Kolapo Ajani?
He handed his badge to his captain and stretched out his
hands so the handcuffs could be attached. His captain had warned him not to
talk to Internal Affairs without a lawyer but he had done things his way as
usual and now he had given them all the evidence they needed to convict him.
How had he gotten himself into this mess? Why had he been so blinded that he
didn’t see this coming? He should have known that trouble was coming when his
sister showed up in his house unannounced three days ago.
Tolu had come home after his shift to meet Tola inside
his apartment? She told him she had made a copy of his key the last time she
was around. A wrong as that sounded, he didn’t react to the statement. He was
more concerned about the fact that it was night time and they were indoors, yet
Tola was wearing dark aviator sunglasses. She removed them and the bruise below
her left eye jumped out at him. Tolu could feel a surge of anger towards the
person he knew was responsible. Before he could talk, Tola told him to stop
being a policeman and be her brother because she had good news. She was
pregnant.
Tolu didn’t know how to react to this news. He always
knew his sister was no saint but he was not prepared for the news that she was
about to be a mother out of wedlock. This was not helped by the fact that the
father was a deadbeat nobody named Kolapo Ajani. Kola was a trouble maker,
bully and all around douchebag. Here he was heading up a police unit that dealt
with domestic violence and his own sister was being abused. This wasn’t the
first time Kola had assaulted her and Tolu had warned him that he would not survive
the next time it happened. If not for the badge, Tolu might have made good on
that promise when he saw the shiner on his sister’s eye. Now she was carrying
his baby.
The next morning, the first thing Tolu did was to go to
judge Kuku and get a protection order served on Kola. He was not to come within
500 metres of Tola or contact her in anyway. Failure to disobey meant arrest
and jail time. He has brought Tola to the station with him just so she wouldn’t
be stuck at home all day. Later in the day, he was called to a murder scene and
asked one of his colleagues to get an officer to drop Tola off at home.
Tolu came home later that day and unlocked the door as
usual but the keychain lock had been engaged from inside so he couldn’t get in.
He called out to Tola and that’s when he heard her scream. He forced the door
open and immediately had his weapon in his hand. He ran into the living room
and found Kola on top of his sister with his fist raised. He yelled for him to
get off her and Kola turned around with his arms raised claiming that Tola had
called him and asked him to come over. Tolu told him to shut up and asked Tola
is she was ok. That was when Kola pulled a gun out of his jacket and Tolu shot
him twice in the chest.
To be continued…
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