“I should not have been in prison now if I had
someone to bail me from the Special Anti Robbery Squad” he said. “In fact
initially I was not sleeping in the cell. Every night my IPO would bring me out
to sleep. Every day he fed me with locust bean meal (Okpa) and water. ‘Why won’t your people come to bail you?’
he said. ‘You are not a criminal.’ I
had a sister but she was in Niger state. Even though she was contacted she did
not come. That is why he took my hand set eventually for he said he spent about
N3, 000 on me.
It was a SIM card that I picked from the road
that caused it all. I used to pick SIM cards and if there was some credit left
in them I would use them and then throw them away, but this one I retained
after wiping it. I had a dual SIM phone and they were full so I retained this
one for use. I worked in Nsukka and my wife and children were in the village. I
would earn money and send maybe N2, 500 or N3, 000 to them. One day I got a
call on that SIM in which a female called me by another name. I told her I am
not who she thinks. She claimed I had helped her once in Enugu and she wanted
to thank me. I remembered working as a driver in Enugu for some time but could
not remember her. I had since stopped driving in deference to my mother. When I
talked about it my friend suggested it may be a way fortune was coming to me,
so in subsequent discussions with her I agreed to meet her. She came one day
and called me on the SIM. When we met she said it had been long we met in
response to my telling her I am not who she thinks. She offered to take me out
and I insisted on sitting opposite her, and then two men sprang on me and
arrested me. The owner of the SIM I picked had been robbed of his golf car some
time back. The robbers took the car and his handset by the way at Nsukka. It
was through the SIM the police came and arrested me. When I am released and someone offers me a handset so much as just to
call my brother whilst standing by him I will refuse!
My case just came up for mention once in 2013
when eventually I was assigned a lawyer. After my plea a lawyer said she was
hot and uncomfortable, that is how my case was adjourned for a year. I have
been to court in 2013 and 2014. But I now believe it was to know God I was
brought to the prison. Before then I wasn’t going to church or reading the
bible. I had no use for such. In this Enugu prison I heard the word of God
preached and eventually in 2014 I came to give my life to Jesus Christ. I tell
inmates to listen when preaching is going on but some of them would rather go into
the toilet to smoke goof.
I enjoyed reading my bible but now I cannot see
very well again. I can read what is on the top of this paper but the rest are
blurred. Two days ago I prayed and said to God, ‘Is it now that I have come to
know you that I will not be able to see again? Everything is in your hands. ’ ”
Before I was afflicted I went astray, but
now I obey your word. Though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep
your precepts with all my heart. Their hearts are callous and unfeeling, but I
delight in your law. It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn
your decrees. Ps 119:67, 69-71 (NIV)
Njom is an inmate in Enugu Prisons
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