Crime Focus

The plight of a drunken driver (I)

 

With Saliu Woru Mohammed

I returned from the day’s work and was about settling down to my already cold lunch, when I heard a faint tap on my door. Initially, I ignored it, taking it to be one of the excesses of the kids living around my house.

However, the knocking persisted. Some thought quickly flashed through my mind. As a security officer, I rarely take chances of little strange things. So, when Zubair, my little kid who had been busy fondling me was running to open the door, I ordered him back, opting to go myself.

Peeping though the small hole of my window, I saw my good old friend, Usman staggering and murmuring some uncoordinated statements. It immediately occurred to me that “man” as we fondly called him was “soaked up” again. “Usman” I screamed and rushed to usher him in. after exchanging pleasantries, he told me he was traveling to Abuja but decided to pop in and say hello to me before proceeding.

“Traveling at this time of the day”? It was getting to 5 O’clock. “But come to think of it, you are drunk yet you want to risk travelling with your entire family at this late hour to a place as far as Abuja. Why can’t you think of the dangers you are exposing your family and self to” I said, looking straight into his eyes. Alas! He decided not to listen to my advice and insisted on embarking on his journey with its attendant danger to lives and property.

Usman had been a liquor addict from childhood, while schooling together in Kaduna. He had been suspended and later counseled on several occasions. At a time, he smashed his fanciful sports bicycle against the principal’s car resulting in serious injuries.

Concerned, his parents once employed the services of a social counselor and later placed him in a juvenile home for proper attention. Usman subsequently dropped other habits of smoking and squandering but found drinking difficult to shed.

I calculated that it I could talk to him into sleeping over, he might recover enough to make the trip early Saturday.

“Why not pass the night here. In fact, it will be a great honour to host your little kid and pretty wife”. I suggested.

*To be continued

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