Fraudster & His Ordeal
Rather fail with honor than succeed with fraud was my resolution after witnessing a fraudster being stoned almost to death by an angry mob.
It was on the eve of Christmas, at about 3:30pm, just after lunch, when a loud burst of voices was heard near my homestead in Eket, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. He was too gentlemanly to be thought of as a fraudster; yet, he was only a beast disguise in lamb's wool. His victim, a young lady of about 22 narrated her story to the widened ears of the passerbys. "Who would've known him to be a fraudster given how he dressed?", was a constant repetition by the lady.
The fraudster who's identity was yet to be reviewed approached the lady, asking if she could spare him a minute's call with her phone. He claimed to be a lawyer, adding that he had forgotten his phone at the office while he was coming back, and that his home was just a stone-throw away from where they stood. He were that he wanted to reach his secretary who would help him get the phone while returning from work. She offered her phone without hesitancy and crossed over to a shop where she wanted to get a bottle of coke, beckoning him with a wave to wait at the exact spot while while she pulls herself across for the coke.
It was less than three minutes when she pull out of the shop only to meet man's absence. As if led by some transcendental being, she doddled into one of the narrow paths there she saw the man trying to untie her phone's battery with three other phones with him whereupon she screamed "thief, thief, thief", and this alerted the neighbors who, through their efforts, made the man's plans to escape come unglued.
Three other ladies came out and claimed ownership of the other three phones. This aggravated some angry mobs who had reached the scene in the wake of the loud scream. They had begun their duty as per usual when other young boys joined in stoning him. The fraudster was at the brink of coma when some police arrived the scene and took him away, and soon quietness returned again.
