On Trial – Episode 8

On Trial – Episode 8
© Onyinyechukwu Mbeledogu
‘Can I get you anything?’ Kaira asked Koje.
Koje had taken the road that linked Woji and within minutes they had made it to her office. She walked up to the water dispenser in her office to get herself a cool glass of water. Her office was tastefully furnished, courtesy of her younger sister Nzubechukwu who was an interior decorator. A soft red rug ran through the length of the room and matched the sofa and drawn up curtains. A long shelf of books and law reports spanned the length of one wall and part of an adjoining wall. The rest of the law book and law reports could be found in the lawyers’ office. Kaira’s large desk was covered with files, stationaries, papers and her personal computer. All the case files were arranged alphabetically in a shelf in the lawyers’ office.
When she had first found this place, and the price was really good, she had invited Nzube to look at the apartment with the eyes of an interior decorator and Nzube had been excited. The place had looked small with its seemingly small rooms but Nzube had done the magic that had made Zuby’s creations a huge success. The sitting area was partitioned to create a reception and a mini-conference room for office meetings and research. The larger bedroom was converted to lawyers’ office with the office of the head of chambers partitioned for privacy. The smaller bedroom was en suite like the bigger one and was designed for Kaira.
By the time Nzube was done with the decoration, the seemingly small two bedroom apartment turned chambers was well furnished appeared spacious.
The moment they had arrived at her office, Kaira had asked Koje to wait for half an hour while she had a quick meeting with counsel in her office. Office meetings held every Thursday so that pending issues could be handled on Friday instead of waiting for the next working day which was Monday.
The meeting wasn’t long as she received daily feedbacks from the lawyers and the meeting was just to note the things that needed to be done before the new week and to provide monies for pending assignments and for the weekly appearance of counsel. Rashidat would assign the matters for the new week.
Presently, she gestured to Koje to sit on one of the two leather arm chairs in front of her desk. She had biscuits and soft drinks in the small fridge by her desk. The flat screen television matching the one in the reception served as a distraction when she had to work really late.
She was grateful for friends who had helped set up her office especially for those who took it upon themselves to buy the books and law reports. She was proud of her nice little office which was presently very cool courtesy of the air conditioning system.
‘No, thanks,’ Koje said absentmindedly.
She turned to find him looking intensely at the framed photograph on her desk. She had taken that photograph with her twin sister on her call to bar day.
‘You’re a twin,’ he observed unnecessarily, considering the fact that she and Chibuogu were identical.
‘Obviously,’ she responded, settling into her swivel chair and picking up his casefile. ‘Let’s get down to business.’
He waited patiently as she hurriedly read through the file and the endorsements made. She would take her time to read through the file that night. She was happy the case was before Hon Justice A. C. Oyolu. However she was surprised the judge had taken a month to deliver a ruling on Koje’s bail. It was so unlike the judge who was known for giving very short adjournments and lengthy but well considered judgments and rulings. Perhaps the bail application had come up during one of the weeks when the judge had been absent as a result of a strange accident that had occurred on his way to court.
Kaira asked Koje a few open questions and gave him free rein to talk. She wanted to hear from him. Whether or not she would believe him was not important for now. However, as he talked about that night, Kaira knew he was hiding something despite his deceptively outward openness.
From his story, he had met the Prosecutrix, Asolaide Layeni, and four years earlier when she had applied for the post of his personal assistant. She had been very effective and professional. But he would have been dead not to have noticed that she was a beautiful woman with a figure to die for. She helped org-nise his itinerary and he hadn’t had a moment’s regret. However, a few k-sses and touches meant that they were beginning to break strict employer-employee codes and he knew he couldn’t continue working with her without having a full affair with her. And so two and a half years later, he had informed her that he could no longer work with her. He was attracted to her and as her boss, he couldn’t have an affair with her. She had accordingly tendered her resignation letter and he had paid her a sizeable amount of money as a parting gift and then recommended her to her present employer.
How he had managed to resist taking her to his bed for so long was a miracle. He wasn’t usually that patient and seeing other women by the side hadn’t helped get Laide out of his system. As his personal assistant she had even helped vet the list of some of the women he had dated during that period ensuring that they did not interfere with his office itinerary.
They hadn’t parted in anger and until the rape incident came up, he had thought she understood why he had to let her go. She still visited his nightclub every now and then although he really saw her. On the day of the alleged rape, he hadn’t been anywhere around her. She had moved out of her apartment in D/line to Igwuruta. He hadn’t known about the move until he had gone to Igwuruta and was subsequently arrested by the police for assault and rape. He hadn’t seen her in months, not since the night he ran into her in the company of her friends at his night club.
‘Why were you in Igwuruta?’
‘It’s actually private.’
‘It’s the reason you’re in the mess you currently are in. There is nothing private about it. Once you are put in the witness box, everything about you will become public knowledge. The prosecution will eat you raw and damage your reputation. It is in your best interest to be completely honest with me. Now, I’ll ask again, why were you in Igwuruta?’
He was still reluctant. His gaze was intense as he considers whether or not to tell her what he’d been doing there like it was some kind of state secret that should be only revealed on a need-to-know basis or a secret that was not his to divulge.
‘I went to see her,’ he finally said.
‘The Prosecutrix?’
‘Laide. Don’t ask me why because I don’t know the answer to that. But I didn’t see her.’
‘She wasn’t home?’
‘I don’t know. I didn’t knock on her door. I changed my mind the moment I got into the apartment premises. I asked myself exactly what I wanted from her. It had been almost a year since I revoked her contract of employment and so I was no longer her employer, but I wasn’t sure if I was there to ask her out or if I just had to see her to tell myself that I had really gotten over my attraction towards her.’
‘I hope you are being honest with me, Quadri,’ she told him, ‘because I expect nothing but complete honesty from you. I still have a duty to defend you to the best of my abilities even if you admit to the offences.’
‘What do you want to hear?’ he asked, not amused and his dark brown eyes growing darker. ‘That I walked up the staircase to her apartment, knocked on the door and she let me in, and that’s why there was no sign of forced entry. You want to hear that I hit her when she played hærd to get and forced myself on her because I was too far gone to consider my actions? That I knocked her out to keep her from scre-ming and that’s why she couldn’t scre-m and attract her neighbours until I had left her apartment and was long gone?’
‘Is that what happened?’ she asked quietly.
‘What do you think?’ he retorted. ‘I have just told you what you want to hear. While you’re at it, why don’t you apply to the court to have me remanded in prison custody pending the outcome of my trial on the grounds that I am a threat to the females in this state and I am in danger of committing the same offences for which I am currently standing trial.’
‘It’s the place of the prosecution to make such an application and not mine. And I am quite sure that you would not do anything stupid enough to get you back in prison.’
‘Such faith,’ he muttered with sarcasm dripping from his voice.
She ignored that remark.
‘If you went into her apartment then we can go for the defence of consent.’
‘That would mean placing myself at the scene of the alleged crimes. How do you intend to prove consent? Don’t bother, I think I know. You’ll tell the court that I have a large org-n and since it was our first time together, there was bound to be bruises on her privates as a result.’
‘Of course we could play the size of the male appendage card,’ she said, then frowned at him. ‘This is not a joking matter. The prosecution has a line of witnesses who can place you at the scene, one of whom is a medical expert through whom the prosecution seeks to tender the DNA report which matches the semen found in the Prosecutrix with yours. Unless you intend to convince the court that while you were doing whatever it is you were doing in Igwuruta, your semen took a stroll to Laide’s apartment and jumped right into her.’
‘And has it occurred to you that the only way they have a sample is because I volunteered it? That I might have been set up. After all they had enough samples.’
He had a point there but it sounded like something from a low budget foreign movie.
‘This is not a foreign movie, Quadri,’ she told him and earned herself a hærd glare.
She didn’t want to consider that he had made a genuine argument. Perhaps because she needed to hold onto her belief that every man accused of rape was actually guilty of it whether or not convicted by a court of law.
A thought came to her and she immediately created a scenario from it. Koje had admitted to knowing the Prosecutrix four years earlier. He had also admitted to being attracted to her. What if he’d tried to force his attentions on her and she had refused him, perhaps because she was in a serious relationsh¡p? He must have threatened to fire her if she did not give in to his demands and she took the honourable way out by resigning. And then he had been so infuriated and embarrassed by her rejection of his affections considering his good looks and his wealth that he had decided to teach her a lesson.
Perhaps he had sought her out since she no longer worked for him, intending to be with her and she had rejected him once more. Naturally, he would try to k-ss her, right? And perhaps she had responded to his k-ss for a few seconds before coming to her senses and protested. He refused to take no for an answer and in the course of struggling with him, he had hit her, knocking her out. And then fully ar-used, he took his pleasure and rushed out of the apartment, probably regretting his actions and hoping she wouldn’t say anything about what had happened to her. But she had not just talked about it, she had made a report to the police and agreed to be a complainant in a charge against him.
How had he found out Laide’s new address? Had he stalked her as he had stalked Kaira? That was a question for another day.
That scenario she had created made a lot of sense to her. She felt like Sherlock Holmes. He wasn’t a serial rapist like Chief but he had allowed his pride to make him a rapist and that was not an excuse. Say you be fine boy no mean say person must gree for you !
‘You are so eager to believe that I am guilty,’ Koje continued, ‘that I wonder if I am not being stupid for insisting that you defend me. I feel like I am talking with the Prosecuting counsel who is ready to put me away for good.’
She felt like a heel, it was unethical to let her judgment cloud her decisions. Guilty or not, he was entitled to the best defence he could get. She ought not to make her personal opinion so obvious but the man just rubbed her off the wrong way.
She watched him. He wasn’t looking in her direction. She figured he was thinking of what would happen if the prosecution secured a conviction. He was wealthy enough to pursue an appeal up to the Supreme Court. If the Supreme Court dismissed his appeal, then he would be spending the rest of his life in prison unless the President or the Governor exercised his prerogative of mercy. He was also probably wondering if he shouldn’t just spend his money engaging a team of Senior Advocates of Nigeria who wouldn’t be so judgmental and who would give him hope of coming out of this unscathed rather than one who might go to court and mess up his case. He could afford any lawyer he wants.
She didn’t want to be involved in his case! But she couldn’t protest much. He was desperate enough to pay whatever she asked for, but she wouldn’t take advantage of that. She would give him his fees based on his case. If the matter ended up going on appeal then they would agree on another fee to pursue the appeal.
On her own part, she would have to find looph0les in the evidence and discredit the prosecutions’ witnesses; coach her client so that he didn’t shoot himself in the foot during cross examination; and then prepare a powerful address that would make the court lean in her favour. Most importantly, handle the media stories that would herald her decision to defend a man accused of rape when she had been instrumental to putting away several rapists and giving rape victims the opportunity to speak up about their experience.
‘My duty to defend you to the best of my abilities commenced from the moment I agreed to be your counsel,’ she told him. ‘This I shall do irrespective of whatever opinion I have of you. I don’t expect you to keep anything a secret from me as long as it relates to this case so that I am not thrown off balance by the prosecution.’
He was silent.
‘If there is anything you ought to tell me, I would appreciate it if you do so now. From the endorsement on the file, the prosecution has already fielded four witnesses, the Prosecutrix, the Investigating Police Officer, a lab assistant and Laide’s neighbour leaving four other witnesses in its list of witnesses. Unless the matter starts de novo, I have lost the opportunity to cross-examine Laide but at least there are other witnesses to work on. It could have been worse; the Prosecution could have closed its case.’
He didn’t tell her anything new, but that didn’t mean that he’d told her everything he should. In fact she was certain he was still keeping some information from him. But it was late, a few minutes past 7pm and she had to leave. The firm ran from 8am to 6pm and anytime she had to keep her lawyers, she gave them additional money for overtime.
She had to work really hærd on keeping her opinion to herself. Perhaps, Koje’s reluctance to tell her everything was born out of not being sure if he could completely trust her.
There was a knock on her door and a female lawyer opened the door slightly. That was Rashidat. Fair skinned and of average height, she was Fulani and very intelligent and nine years at the bar.
‘Hi,’ Rashidat greeted Koje and then to Kaira, said. ‘I’m done for the day. You need to also close, Ma. It’s getting late, remember you don’t have your car here with you.’
The mechanic had called earlier to say he was done with the car and she could test run it tomorrow and transfer his fees to his bank account. His bill was a total of thirteen thousand naira inclusive of his workmansh¡p. He’d had to change one of the coils and something else she couldn’t even remember its name but she would check her message later for the bill he had sent and the breakdown.
‘I hadn’t even realised that so much time had passed,’ Kaira told her.
Rashidat was more like a sister to her and always looked out for her.
‘This is Abayomrunkoje Quadri,’ Kaira introduced, ‘a new client. We’ll be having a detailed interface with him tomorrow. His case comes up tomorrow before Hon Justice Oyolu so we would first enter appearance for him. I’ve asked Sopuru to file a notice of change of counsel first thing in the morning.’
Rashidat’s face didn’t give any indication of surprise at seeing Koje Quadri in the office. She had discussed his case with Kaira in the past, following the gossip on the social media. Kaira knew she would answer a lot of questions tomorrow afternoon.
‘All right. I’ll see you after court. Good night.’
‘Good night. And please tell Ruhuoma that she can close for the day.’ Ruhuoma Owhor was her secretary.
Kaira hid a yawn behind her palm. She wasn’t sure if it was borne out of hunger or tiredness. She hadn’t eaten anything apart from the plantain ch¡ps and plastic bottle of teem she had bought while they were in traffic. Koje had actually suggested that they stop somewhere for lunch but she had turned down his request. He hadn’t said anything about that but he had to have known why. So as it stood, unless he had taken something while she was addressing the judge at Nchia, he also hadn’t eaten anything since he had approached her at the High Court premises in Port Harcourt.
‘We’ll have to continue after court tomorrow,’ she told him. ‘It’s quite late. I’ll take the file home and carefully peruse through the processes and the sequence of evidence already given.’
Sopuru had promised to ensure that the notice of change of counsel was filed and put in the court’s file before the court sat and bring the service copies to her.
‘You haven’t mentioned your fees,’ he reminded her.
She hadn’t forgotten.
‘I’m sure you were told that our services don’t come cheap, and I’m sure you can afford the fees. However, we’ll talk about it tomorrow after I have properly perused your case file and taken a lot of things into consideration.’
‘Okay.’.
‘Good,’ she said rising to her feet. ‘So it’s settled. We’ll discuss the fees tomorrow. And I hope by then you would fill the lacuna.’
‘What lacuna?’
‘The one you left in the information you passed to me. I know there are things you are keeping to yourself and this has nothing to do with my personal opinion of you. But at the risk of sounding like a broken record, it is in your best interest not to keep anything from me.’
She locked up the office and Koje gave her a ride home in D/Line. It was a two bedroom apartment. She had initially gone for a one bedroom apartment but the agent had informed her that for that particular building, the monetary difference between the one bedroom and the two bedroom apartment was just N50, 000 and so she had thought about it and felt that it made more sense to go for the two bedroom apartment.
She didn’t bother asking Koje how he knew where she lived.
She had been apprehensive sitting alone with him in the darkness of his car especially as they had to take short cuts to avoid the traffic on the usual routes. She entertained crazy thoughts of him pulling over in a dark, isolated are and forcing himself on her. One couldn’t blame her for her thoughts considering the past and the offence for which he was standing trial.
She actually breathed a sigh of relief when he got her to her apartment in one piece.
‘You should learn to have more faith in your client, Ms Madukaife,’ Koje told her, ‘so you don’t end up with a high blood pressure over nothing.’
And to think that she had been certain she had successfully hidden her apprehension! She gathered her files and bags from the car.
‘ O da arọ ,’ she said to him
‘ O da aro kosi la ala to da, ’ he responded.
Without waiting for him to drive off, let herself into her apartment.
Translation
O da arọ – Good night
‘ O da aro kosi la ala to da – Good night and sweet dreams
To be continued