Policemen in
the Lagos State command, who had often heard the voice of Inspector Augustine
Agwu on air, responding to distress calls as he raced, with his team, to battle
armed robbers, have described him as a gallant officer.
But today,
the gallant Agwu is a shadow of his former self. He is presently a drug addict,
needing at least 30 bottles of pentazocine (fortwin Injection) to keep
excruciating pains at bay and still stay alive. And each pack of Pentazocine,
which contains ten bottles, cost N3000.
Agwu became
a slave to the injection after a dangerous encounter with armed robbers along
the Okokomaiko area of Lagos, which left all his team members dead and him
almost a vegetable. According to him, he
was pumped full of bullets, 14 times by the bandits.
He was shot
inside the mouth, on his head and on the waist seven times. The bullet shot
into his mouth tore out through his cheek. The several shots on his waist tore
through parts of his tummy and laps.
The fact
that Agwu survived was an incredible miracle, which officers of the command are
marveling and speaking about after almost seven years.
On that
fateful day of January, 30, 2002, Agwu, with three members of his team, had
responded to a distress call that robbers were operating at the last bridge
before Ijanikin. Before they go to the scene, they ran into another set of
robbers, in two buses. Many of them were in army camouflage uniforms. More than
12 of them, who handled their AK 47 rifles like professionals, opened fire on
Agwuâ's team.
Three
members of the team died immediately at the scene, but Agwu lived to tell and
relieved the nightmare of that day. Speaking with The Nigerian Compass,
Agwu said he was yet to decipher the reason God spared his life.
Pentazocine
is the injection administered on Agwu, to keep pains away seven years ago in
the hospital. But sadly, the once brave cop, has become a prisoner of the
injection that was supposed to be his salvation.
According to
Agwu, if he didn't take it as at when due, he becomes, “like a semi-human
being. I won't be able to speak or eat. When it gets to the hour, I’m supposed
to take the injection, my body tells me. Even if I am sleeping, I feel it and
will wake up to take it. I take a shot every 30 minutes. I take 30 bottles a
day.”
The
policeman does not like his dependence on the drug, but if he ever hopes to live
a normal life again, he needs to raise N2.4 million, with which the Lagos
University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) needs to flush and cleanse out his system,
in order to arrest the addiction.
Right now,
the Commissioner of Police (CP) Mr. Marvel Akpoyibo had implored his men to
assist Agwu and his intervention had yielded N1.2 million. Now, Agwu needs N1.2
to go back to LUTH before it becomes too late.
On first
meeting with the Inspector however, the first thing that strikes one, is his
sickly appearance. And one can be forgiven for asking silently, 'is he really alive
or just a walking corpse?'
Agwuâ's
appearance sharply brings to the mind, the kind of human beings that the late
dramatist, Professor. Ola Rotimi described as the ‘Living Dead'.
He has scars
crisscrossing over his right hand. He makes use of only his left hand, because
the right had fallen off its shoulder socket. Doctors attempt to fix back the
hand into its socket had become futile, as each time them they fix it, it falls
off again.
It is presently hanging limply on his body,
like a withered tree branch, waiting to be chopped off from the mother tree.
If he removes his police cap, scars can also
be seen on his head. The body, hidden inside his uniform, which hangs on his
skinny frame like something he borrowed from a fat elder brother, is also
covered with scars.
While
speaking with the Nigerian Compass, the hour for his injection arrived, he deftly
used his left hand to unscrew an injection bottle, pulled out a needle and
syringe and quickly filled it.
Years of practice had made him to become a
one-handed expert in injecting himself. It soon became clear that part of the
scars on his right hand, were spots he had once injected himself.
As he told
the Nigerian
Compass the terror and horror of that night, his eyes shimmers with
tears…and more tears filled his eyes as he mentioned the names of the policemen
slain that night.
Recollecting
the event, he said: "I was serving at Ojo Division back then. The distress
call was from the control room. It said that robbers were operating along
Ijanikin. I and my team were on patrol duty, when we got the call. We were
four; there was corporal Benkea, the driver, Inspector Akinola, corporal Mumuni
and myself.
We
immediately drove off in the direction. We were about turning at Cele/Nicer bus
stop, making a U-turn, when we saw two buses. One Nissan Urvan and one
farrogone bus, painted Lagos State commercial colour, loaded with men. Some
were in military camouflage uniform. They came down, faced us with AK47. Those
that came down were about 12 men. They started firing at us point blank. They
got the driver. He lost control of the van and rammed into an electric pole.
When the
bandits saw that all the men had been injured, they picked them one by one, to
finish them off. The idea was to make sure that none of them lived. Mumuni
tried to run across the road, but was gunned down. He died on the spot. Akinola
didn't bother to come down, for before he could blink, bullet sliced off part
of his face. He too died on the spot. Benkea was about to come down from the
van when he was shot, his brains spattered on the dashboard of the van.
When the van
lost control, Agwu had jumped out of the van, but the bullets pursued him
relentlessly and got him. One of the hoodlums drew closer to Agwu who was
writhing in pain and stepped hard on his head.
One of them stepped
on my head and said, don’t move! If you have medicine, it won't work! If you
call on God, he'll not answer you here. Today, Devil has taken over. The next
time you come back to this life, you won't join the Nigeria Police Force, to
stop us from where we are making our living. I tried to plead, but he stuck a
gun into my mouth, forced my teeth off, and then shot into my mouth. The bullet
came out through my cheek," said Agwu. He shot me again straight on the
head, which was operated and the bullets extracted after three months of being
in the hospital. He shot me seven times on my waist. The bullets came out
through my stomach and laps. They went on the rampage, shooting.
Many people
were wounded. It was almost morning, so people were already going to their
offices. These people saw these things happening. They just watched and some
ran. The bullets of the robbers killed a Lagos State University (LASU), student.
They killed a driver who was driving a white man. He took one-way and didn't
know robbers were operating. They killed him, even when the white man was screaming,
don't kill him! Please don't kill! One of them wanted to kill the white man,
but a voice from inside one of the buses said, don't touch that white man! I
was almost gone, but I heard these conversations like from somewhere far. They
operated for a while, and then one said, let's go! Day don dey break! Let's
enter through officers’ gate, through Igbo-eleri. Another voice said, check
those men to make sure they are dead, because they can be pretending. They had
already taken all our AK47 rifles.
They started
checking to make sure all the team members were dead. The man who checked Agwu
didn't bother to turn him over since he was lying faced down and his back and
head were covered with blood. He wrongly assumed that the Inspector was dead.
He searched Agwuâ's pocket and found his little bible. The searcher asked, 'Why
didn't this book save you?' You're deceiving
yourself.
After they
left, Agwu painfully turned over and started muttering to passers-bye to help
him. A Good Samaritan who was moved at the sight of Agwu wanted to assist, but
another man told him not to try it, that police would later frame him a suspect
instead of a sympathiser. The man promptly left. Agwu knew it was left to him
to try to help himself. He had to crawl to the police van because one of his
legs was already broken. And all these while, passers-bye just kept watching,
without lifting a finger to help.
Agwu said:
"I called weakly for help, but none came. Blood was coming from my mouth,
head, waist, stomach, all over me! I received about 14 rounds of ammunition. I
crawled to our vehicle. It was then I saw that Benkea had lost his head. His
brains were on the front seat. I picked the knob of our radio set and called
control room 2. I said we've been attacked, everybody was dead and that I didn’t
think I will be able to survive. After that, I lost consciousness, which I didn’t
regain until after three months.
When he
opened his eyes three months later, the first two persons he saw
were his wife and mother. It was also the most beautiful sight of all as
it dawned on him that he was still among the living. Those three months, he had
been on liquid food.
I tried to
move but I couldn’t. My leg was at an awkward angle, covered with plaster of
Paris. My head, neck waist were also plastered. There was a sort of wire, holding
my teeth together. I stayed in that hospital for 13 months.
But all
these while, life had not been easy for the 45-year-old father of four. His
family needed every money they could get, thus the kids had to be withdrawn
from private schools. When he was finally discharged, he was placed on
Pentazocine injection, which he had been taking for seven years now.
When money
became scarce and Agwu knew he couldn’t do without his injections, he started
visiting any pharmacy for the injection. He buys on credit and told the Nigerian Compass that the least money he
owed some pharmacies around Oshodi, was N32, 000.
“I went to
Nigeria Police Medical Services, Lagos State command, behind area, Ikeja. It
was there they referred me to LUTH.”
The
incessant need for the drug to alleviate his pains didn’t only make him an
addict, but also a beggar. Sick and tired of his miserable life, Agwu decided
to go to the police command. He first went to the police spokesman, Frank Mba,
who after listening to his pathetic story took him to Akpoyibo.
Mother luck
was smiling on Agwu that day, for the
same day that Mba took him to meet Akpoyibo, was the day the police boss was meeting with some of the
top ranking policemen in the command.
When
Akpoyibo heard the story of Agwu, he was moved to tears. He advised Agwu to
write a letter of appeal to the Inspector-General- of-police (IGP), which he
promised he would personally processed to make sure it gets to the IGP.
The Deputy
Commissioner of police (DCP), in charge of Administration, Mr. Gambo, who was
also there, while Agwu was narrating his ordeal to the CP, suggested that
Akpoyibo should present Agwu to the policemen, who were waiting to have a
meeting with him.
Akpoyibo presented him to the policemen and
asked if any of them recognised and knew Agwu. There were shouts of recognition
and many openly called him the dread of robbers, cat with nine lives and a
gallant officer.
Akpoyibo
asked if they still thought Agwu was gallant since his attack, the men kept
mute. The CP cajoled and implored his men to assist in saving Agwuâ’s life. The
CP didn’t have to speak for long before the men started donating their widow’s
mite.
Few minutes
later, Mba asked Agwu to tender his bank account number so that the money,
which was N1.2million, could be paid into his account. But I didn’t have any
bank account. The Chief Superintendent
Police (CSP) in charge of administration, Mr. Olubode Ojajuni, who coordinated
the donation, asked me to sign for N20, 000, to use to open an account. I did. The money has been paid. But right now
I need N1.2million more before I can go to LUTH.
The earlier
Agwu gets the N2.4million, the quicker he can begin his treatment. The danger of any delay is that Agwuâ’s;
addiction may force him to dip hands into his donation, to buy his badly needed
injections.
Agwu is out
of ideas on who to run to for the
remaining N1.2million, thus he is begging members of the public, corporate
organisations, churches, mosques and well meaning Nigerians in the society to
show a little bit of love. He firmly believed that a little drop of water could
make an ocean.
If anyone
wishes to see Agwu, he can be found at Shogunle police station, Mafoluku,
Lagos. People can also get in touch with him, through Police Public Relations
officer(PPRO) , Mr. Frank Mba; 08038375844.
08 December 2009
No comments:
Post a Comment