Butchered By An Antelope
Felix Ovie and his friend Paul Wowi had gone on a hunting expedition. For four hours, they searched through the forest and found no game. About the time they were about giving up their search to return home, they suddenly saw a thicket. Locked within this thicket was an antelope.
Felix recognized it was the features of an antelope. He tapped Paul to indicate they have finally found a game. The two of them became still. Felix aimed the gun very well, and opened fire on the skull of the antelope.
The antelope fell down in a pool of blood and died immediately. Both Paul and Felix were very happy that the antelope finally fell and that at least they would not go home empty-handed. Although the two friends were bachelors, they had always sold any game they killed to market women, who in turn sold to their customers who loved to eat "bush meat" at costly prices.
"This particular game is big, and it will fetch more money than the last one we killed and sold," said Felix, as they bent down to lift the dead antelope from the ground.
The two friends were very excited as they carried the antelope and tried to find their way out of the thick forest. Both of them have heard several stories about spirits and ghommids who roamed the forests especially at night, when human beings were sleeping. But they have never encountered any of these evil spirits in the forest since they began hunting at night. In fact, they enjoyed searching for game at night, because the animals, like human beings, hardly functioned well at night.
The two young hunters walked on briskly out of the forest and easily located the footpath, which led to their village. By this time, the weight of the antelope had put much pressure on Felix, and he called on Paul to bail him out. Paul knew it was time for him to relieve Felix. Both of them have been carrying the massive antelope in turns as they walked towards the village.
Shortly afterwards, they got to the city centre. Just then, Pa Maleolaje, a 70-year-old retired police officer and his 65-year-old friend, Ajepeaye hid in a dilapidated shed poised to catch local robbers who had been terrorizing the village. They spotted strange figures and movement advancing towards them. At 70 years, Mabola had problems with his eyesight. His monthly retirement allowance from the police force was not enough for him to get good recommended glasses. He used to wear old spectacles held together with a combination of plaster and tape.
The Blurred Vision
The glasses, which had no medicated lens, could not help his eyesight, which was blurred. Ajepeaye's eyesight was not better off. He, in fact, had cataracts in his eyes, which he had no financial resources to pay for an operation in the optician's surgery.
As Felix and Paul approached them, the image of the antelope, which the old men saw was that of stolen goods. "God has finally brought these two robbers before us for judgement," said Pa Mabolaje.
"Has it not been said that everyday is for the thief and one day is for the owner?" asked Ajepeaye, as he held his cutlass tightly ready for action.
"When we deal with these, the whole town will be agog, and the king will in fact give up honours," said Pa Mabolaje further as he leapt forward.
They were now convinced they had caught the armed robbers terrorizing their village. Within seconds and without hesitation, both old men descended on the young hunters. Before the boys could say a word, the old men had begun to cut them mercilessly with cutlasses. Paul who was carrying the antelope and was already tired threw it on the ground and began to scream for help.
"Thieves...! Thieves!" screamed the old men as they locked horns with the young men in what appeared to be a wrestling bout.
"We are not thieves! We are hunters coming from the forest!" screamed the boys.
The old men were undaunted. They continued to fight on. They brought out charms and began to chant incantations, which they thought were capable of putting the young men under a spell and paralyzing them.
By now, Felix who still had some energy, was able to free himself from the entanglement. He fled in terror. As he ran for safety, the soles of his feet were almost touching the rear to his head. Paul who was already tired was later overpowered. The two old men wrestled him to the ground. As he lay on the ground screaming for help and pleading innocence, Pa Ajepeaye retorted, "Butcher him!" Pa Mabolaje raised his cutlass up and descended a heavy blow on the forehead of Paul.
"He must not escape, give him another one!" Screamed Ajepeaye again.
And Mabolaje gave Paul another deep cut on his body. Blood began to gush out of Paul's body. He lost his energy so rapidly that in no time, he was lifeless and still. He died.
The two old men were in a very joyous mood. They reasoned they had killed one of the robbers and felt it would take a long time before any hardened robber would come to their village to harass the people. They carried the body of Paul and headed towards the King's palace. They dropped the body there and informed the guards to tell the King they had successful broken the ring of the robbers and killed one of them. No body bothered about the antelope until daybreak.
By seven o'clock in the morning the two old men had returned to the king's palace to properly brief him. It was while the briefing was going on amidst shouts of joy and relief by the villagers that a detachment of police defectives walked in. They were accompanied by Felix and had come to arrest Pa Mabolaje and Mabayeje. Right in front of the king they were handcuffed and taken away amidst shock.
"What could have happened?" the villagers asked.
"Don't you know the police force, maybe they wanted to be bribed," said a townsman.
"What is wrong in killing a thief?" asked another, adding, "this is how these people shield criminals. Someone stole and they killed him during the stealing. Now police are arresting the heroes who carried out judgement, not the thieves."
The police behaved as if they did not hear these side comments. They took the old men away undauntedly.
A month After the Butcher
A month later, the old men were arraigned before the Chief High Court of the town on charges of murder.
The court was jam packed during the trials. People thronged everywhere to watch the proceedings.
"Why are they arraigning these old people?" asked some of the spectators.
"Those boys were actually thieves," murmured someone.
"Hay.... Shhh..... you have to speak gently. That statement could be prejudicial, and if the Court hearts that you can be arraigned too," said an old man.
On the first day of the trial, the pleas of the accused persons were taken. The old men in the dock pleaded not guilty to the charges preferred against them. Mr. Justice Bourdillon Willow ordered that they should be remanded in custody.
The trial went on for four months. The body of the dead antelope, which was recovered at the scene of the crime, was brought to court. Two lawyers defended the two old men. They argued brilliantly that the men caught these alleged thieves at night carrying stolen goods on their heads.
The police and state prosecutors argued that the boys were just innocent hunters carrying an antelope home after a hunting expedition. Some cynics in the court looked at the prosecutors with disgust. One of them was so carried away that he did not know when he remarked, "How can goods transform to an antelope?"
The court was almost being convinced into believing the boys were thieves when the prosecutor suddenly brought out the statements of the accused persons during cross-examination.
"Who wrote these statements?" asked the prosecutor.
"We did," answered Pa Mabolaje and Mabayeaje.
"Can you read the statements to the court," the prosecutor demanded.
"On that day, when we spotted the two thieves, we advanced towards them. We asked them to identify themselves, but they fled. So, we ran after them and they threw their stolen goods away. We caught up with them and began to wrestle with them. We overpowered one of them and the other one escaped. We brought the one we caught down. As he laid on the floor, Mabayeje asked me to cut him to pieces with my cutlass. So, I slammed the cutlass on his forehead. When I discovered he was still shaking, I gave the second one. Again Mabayeje said I should strike him firmly. I did and he died. That was how we got rid of the notorious thief," Pa Mabolaje read to the astonishment of the judge.
"Good for the thief," said someone in the crowd.
The Talking Antelope and The Judgement
Felix was later brought into the dock to make his statement. Amidst sobs, he narrated their experiences, and how Paul was killed, and how he escaped. It was at this point that the crowd began to have some little human feelings.
"They may not be thieves," the crowd in the court began to murmur amongst themselves.
A week later, the court was ready to deliver judgement. The whole place was full of people once again. The judge was determined to pass the verdict based on the facts before him. He glanced at the courtroom, and began his judgement, which took him one hour to read. At the end of it, he pronounced a guilty verdict on Pa Mabolaje and Mabayeje. His verdict was based on the written evidence of the accused persons in which they admitted they butchered the poor hunter with their cutlasses.
As the judge was delivering his judgement, he was lost in a trance. The image of the antelope appeared before him. In the spirit realm, the antelope told the judge she was set up and placed somewhere in the bush to be shot at by the young hunters, by Mr. Roland Roles, Paul's uncle who had his eyes on the properties left by Paul's father before he died few years back.
In a calculated chain of reactions, the antelope spoke to the judge. "I was supposed to push the poor boy into the hands of those who will in turn kill him," said the antelope in spirit to the judge.
The judge sipped water from his glass cup and took a deep breadth. He was taking his time to reflect, but the court did not realize the spiritual trauma unveiling in his vision. He made up his mind and finally asked the old men to be hanged. He had to follow the law, not spiritual matters, no matter how true. So, the antelope actually killed Paul.
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