The police at the gates and in the bush
Funny, tired, underpaid, sometimes greedy and sometimes kind. They hold the gates, and they want to be settled.
Police must eat too.Officer at the main gate
Officer Sola and Officer Tunde guard the estate's north gate from the inside, and they will open it for AJ once he has "settled" them: ₦2,500,000, which they are happy to take a little at a time. On AJ's first day Sola decided he had come back across the Sahara from Libya, and no amount of London accent will change his mind. Tunde adds a new detail every time.
In the bush beside the estate, three officers on a smoke break that never ends keep a shotgun and a pile of empty bottles. Oga Radio, the older one with the hand radio, lends the gun for target practice at the unfinished building and wants it back before you leave. Biscuit, crumbs in every pocket, plans to referee the next football match because his running days ended before the building got its second floor.
At the main gate on party nights, Niyi runs the queue, Kemi cracks the jokes, Leye wonders aloud when someone is bringing food, and Dapo, Fola, Seyi, Akin and Wale keep order. Ask nicely and most nights they let you in. Not every officer takes the envelopes that come down from Prizm on a party night. Kemi doesn't.
The north gate pair are inside the estate; pay them from AJ's play money in ₦1,000, ₦5,000 or ₦20,000 instalments. In party mode, the officers outside the main gate let most guests in free if they ask, and the bush officers lend the shotgun for bottle practice. Gunfire happens only in the bush.
The police who guard the Abraham Adesyan Estate are funny, tired, underpaid and sometimes greedy. Three chapters from inside the gate, out in the bush and in the party-night queue.
Deported from London, beaten in a cell, broke on a veranda bench. He has a plan, a London accent and a debt to the gate police.
A retired Hausa soldier from Kano who traded the parade ground for a snack counter, and sees everyone who passes the gate.
Thirty-one years at Kirikiri prison, now the owner of Prizm. He plays the big man, brokers deals at his table, and takes ten percent.
AJ Cities