I begged pastor Lanre to assist me because I was loosing my mind. He led me in a short prayer of confession and asked me to give him my wife’s number. I dictated the number and he stored it on his phone.
“You will be placed on three days dry fasting starting right away. I will see you after I must have talked to your wife. You may go,” he said. I left pastor’s office like Adam who was driven from Eden.
Going back to the house was like going to hell. On the third and the last day of my fast, pastor was in the house as early as 7:30am. About fifteen minutes later, Jocelyn’s father joined us with her mother. When Jocelyn’s parents came in, I knew that was all for me. I was shivering like a man whom rain had beaten. Without anybody telling me I knew what the meeting was for.
Pastor Lanre opened the meeting with a short prayer and greeted everyone seated. Jocelyn was agitated and restless because pastor Lanre hadn’t told her the purpose of the meeting. Pastor Lanre took up his Bible, preached a long sermon on forgiveness and mercy. Everyone was quiet waiting for pastor to break the news but he was perambulating from one idiom to the other. After all his long sermon he broke the news.
“Sir, Kauna is pregnant and unfortunately your son-in-law, brother Patrick is responsible” he has not finish his statement when Jocelyn left her seat and bounced on me, gave me a hot bite by my right arm and the drama began. Pastor was trying to calm Jocelyn down but she was really angry.
While the drama was still on, Jocelyn’s father went outside and came in with his ordely and I was taken away without a word from Jocelyn’s father.
I was handed over to Garki area police command. From dry fasting to the cell. I was not opportune to break my fasting before the incident, so I came into the cell with an empty stomach. For these two times I have been kept in custody, I understood the saying that “your torture is based on who you offend and not the gravity of your offence.”
When they began to torture me I fainted several times but nobody cared. Suffering was far an understatement compared to what I went through in the police custody. Right there I made a covenant with God that I won’t go to hell if he could save me from this trouble and give me another chance. If hell will be hotter than my experience in police custody then no man deserve to go there.
I ended my dry fasting with with dry bread later in the evening. I had spent one week in custody, before I was charged to court and later sentenced to six months imprisonment. Six months in jail seemed like six years. No member of my family was aware I was in jail. Pastor Lanre and his visitation team came once in a while to check on me in prison.
Visitors were allowed to bring food for us but it had to be cooked or processed food. Days when Pastor and his team came around were like days of jubilee to me. They didn’t just give me the physical food, they also fed me with the word of God.
Days and nights seemed longer in prison than outside the prison. 24 hours were like 240 hours. Prison life is better imagined than experienced. The isolation and boredom cannot be overemphasised. No friend to relate with, no place to go to, nothing to keep one busy.
But Instead of just staying idle in prison, I began to invest my time in prayer and studying of the Bible. I became a prominent member of the prison fellowship, a very vibrant fellowship of convicted inmates.
While in prison, I began to retrace my steps back to my Lord. I became closer to God and fully rededicated my life to Christ. Other Christian bodies and religious organizations always visited us in the prison to encourage us with God’s word and to pray for us. My commitment and dedication in the prison fellowship got me to the position of the assistant secretary of the fellowship. My experience in the prison really humbled me.
tbc
