'I found myself locked up in a cell at Police Hqtrs Makurdi with about 51 detainees' - Franc Utoo's DETENTION NOTES Pt2,

Remember the lawyer who was abducted on the 10 June 2017  by men of the Nigerian Police from the State command on the orders of APC chairman ,Abba Yaro over a little misunderstanding, Barr Franc Utoo.Well he has started writing epistles on his experience at the police...Please read

... And that was how after I had found myself locked up in the cell at the police headquarters in Makurdi with about 51 other detainees, I quickly adjusted to life in cell. I was lucky enough to be left with 3 pieces of clothing on my body: my vest, boxers and jeans (without belt). Because the jeans was a little bit over sized, I had to improvise a belt by using my hankerchief to hook it.

I moved round and familiarised myself with my new mates and I was surprised to discover there were about 3 lawyers detained, 1 army sergeant, 3 police officers, two traditional rulers, drivers, bike men, etc. I was privileged to be given a space just by the window and thus, benefited from the intermittent breeze that comes garnished with the stench of the cell. The inmates surreptitiously divided themselves into micro-classes of threes and fives, according to familiarity, longevity in the cell or similarity of alleged crime and wrong.

After accepting my position as the pro-tempo chairman of the board of trustees, my angle became the mecca of the cell as lot of other inmates hover around to "pay homage." Still, I was just learning and adjusting. I observed one common denominator among the inmates: each person (except for the Barristers, the Zakis and the detained policemen) wore a pair of boxers that is as dirty as a village farm wear. Some detainees have been there for onward of weeks without changing boxers.

As dusk cloud the cell, detainees engaged in a sort of choreographed shuffling of mats and spaces (for sleep). The least privileged ones were asked to move to their zone; the zone where the "shit and piss" containers are situated. Those are the containers detainees use for convenience at night. After some cleanings and adjustment of sleeping mats, cell chairman summoned us all for prayers, praises and worship. Everybody, including the Zakis were instant born agains. The OC Torture who led the prayer session was "militant" in approach as he was asking fire to consume anyone who doesn't stand up for prayers, not minding ones health status at that point.

After prayers, some went into early sleep while many others were talking in hush tones. Suddenly there was a wild scream from a certain corner. Someone had just release a very toxic fart! The people around the corner were pleading for gas masks and swearing for whoever did that. Some were relocating to our ends but were halted by the commanding words of the chairman. 30 minutes to one hour later, more than 70 percent of the detainees went into deep sleep. There was a wild competition of snores. That was the first time I heard a snore that vibrates the floor. Snore was coming from left, right, front, back, centre....

Jeez!

...to be continued