Detective Tom Onyemaechi was feeling really on top of the world as he took the steps two at once to the inspector’s office. He was ecstatic. The tingly possibility that he might unravel the case never leaving him for a moment as his eyes shone with suppressed excitement.
“Good day Tom, any leads?” The inspector asked as soon as Tom sat down.
“Well, yes. We’ve identified the woman. Her name is Cyndi Uwem, though she calls herself different trade names over the years. She is a street walker, though for some years now, she’s been lying low. She has no records. In her final year in secondary school, she got pregnant and subsequently left school. No one knew what happened to the pregnancy or the baby. Same year, she was seen in Lagos, there she met O’Brian and the two co-habited for almost 3years before they packed it up. For over 3 years now, she’s been missing.” 
The inspector listened with rapt attention, not interrupting him. When he was through, he asked. “How long ago did she break up with O’Brian?”
“3, 4 years, I guess.”
“I doubt if he still keeps in touch.”
“Who knows, but if he once blackmailed her, then he definitely will keep in touch with her. He can’t stay holed up for long without anyone aiding him.”
“Where is this girl now?”
“I don’t know. I’m still working on that. She left without anyone’s consent and she left no forwarding address behind.”
“Looks like she didn’t want O’Brian to know her whereabouts,” the inspector said.”
“Looks so to me too.”
“You have to find her.”
“I’ve tried, sir. The only contact she left behind doesn’t exist.”
“Do you mean no such place exists?” he asked incredulously, he was thinking of what to tell Chief.
“Yes, sir.”
“Well, you have to find her. It’s an order,” he said, scratching his head irritably.
“I’ll do my best, sir,” Tom promised.
***
Hearing had continued.
“Yes, IPO, you conducted the search in the accused person’s house, can you tell this honorable court the result of that search?”
“When we got to the accused person’s house we were lucky to meet him and his parents at home. We explained the reason for our visit and his father kindly granted us permission.”
“Did you find anything of interest?”
“Yes, we found a kitchen knife, bottles of beer and gin, packets of cigarettes, a bottle of performance enhancement drug, two x rated films and packets of condom.”
The court booed.
“Order,” the judge bellowed, hitting the table. “Order.”
“Are these items in court?”
“Yes, they are in court.”
“Are these the items?” the barrister asked, raising the items for all to see.
“Yes,” The IPO answered.
Turning to the judge, Barr. Nwaka said, “My lord, I wish to tender these exhibits in court.”
“Show to the defense counsel,” the judge said.
“I have no objection, my lord,” the defense counsel said.
“Evidence is hereby admitted in court as exhibit 4a, b, c, etc.” Turning to the defense counsel, the judge asked.” Any question for the IPO, defense counsel?”
“Yes, yes,” Barr. Brown answered, rising to his feet. “IPO, you said one of the items recovered from the accused person’s house was a kitchen knife?”
“Yes.”
“Now, a kitchen knife can be used to peel oranges, pawpaw or eat water melon?”
“Yes.”
“You said you also found a packet of unused condom?”
“Yes.”
“Now IPO, did you by any chance recover a used condom?”
“No, my lord.”
“Thank you,” he said and turning to the judge, he said. “That will be all for the IPO for now, my lord.”
“That will be all for today,” the judge said, rising to his feet. “Hearing will continue tomorrow, same time.”
“Court!” The clerk bellowed.
***
Hearing had continued the next day with Frankie in the witness box.
“When did you begin your official journey into sexuality?” The defense counsel asked. 
Frankie hesitated, looking embarrassed. 
“You understand the question, don’t you? When did you have your first sex?”
“Last year.”
“Only last year? How many boyfriends do you have?”
“Objection. My lord, the question is immaterial,” the prosecuting counsel objected.
“Goes to motive,” the defense counsel insisted.
“Overruled, you may answer the question,” the Judge said.
“Two.”
“Two? Hardly believable. This year alone, you have broken up with three guys and you’re presently dating two guys, am I right?”
“It is not so. I have only one boyfriend.”
“One boyfriend at a time, you mean to say?”
Frankie hesitated.
“Objection. My lord, the question is leading.”
“I’ll sustain that, Mr. Brown. Please, rephrase your question.” 
“As your lordship pleases, I will. Now, Frankie, did you have sex with all of them?”
“Objection, my lord the question is immaterial.”
“Overruled, you may answer the question.”
“Yes,” she muttered. “But they all used condom. I was not told not to have sex. I was told it was okay to have sex but you prevent infections and unwanted pregnancies using condoms and that’s what I did. Why should I be blamed for doing as I was told?”
“Have you ever made love without a condom?”
“God forbid, no I have never made love without a condom?”
“No? I doubt whether you like using condoms at all. Do you know one Miss Kate Effiong?”
“Yes, she was my corner mate in school way back in junior secondary.”
“She told me you said and I quote, ‘I don’t like using condom because it doesn’t feel natural.’ Was that what you said?”
“Yes, my lord. You see, I said that out of my own naivety and ignorance. My goodness, that was three years ago, I hardly knew what I was talking about then and with all these diseases flying around, it would be suicidal not to use condoms or any form of protection at all.”
“Have you ever passed a note in class, maybe a note that made fun of condom?
“No,” she answered hesitatingly.
“Have you ever said, and I quote, ‘Condoms signaled the virtual demise of the wet patch, we mourn its passing?’ You wrote this? This is your hand writing, isn’t it? You were writing here about condom?”
“It was a joke”
‘Sleeping in the wet patch
Of sheets, all damp and sticky
Sleeping in the wet patch
Was always rather icy
But it was a love match
A fool proof test I’ve found
When your lover get the wet patch
And say she didn’t mind’
“You wrote this poem?”
“It was meant to be a joke.”
“This is not a joke, Frankie. Men’s lives, men’s careers and companies reputations are at stake here, this is not a joke.”
“I swear, I always use condoms and I have never had sex without it. This is unfair,” she begins to cry. “I used a gold rimmed tyrex condom which broke down during use. In fact, that poem was as a result of my experience with Tony. I mean, when we discovered the condom burst, he offered to clean me up and I told him that I didn’t mind the ‘wet patch’. I wasn’t making fun of condom. I believed so much in the condom philosophy but see where it has brought me just because it failed.”
“You don’t use condoms and you had it all planned to seduce Tony so as to get you pregnant, right?”
“It’s a lie. I am being wrongly accused here. I didn’t seduce him and I always use condom,” she cried.
“Do you know Sandra Dauda?”
“Yes, she is my class mate.”
“She told me that you said and I quote, ‘I don’t like wearing pants, only my husband will make me to,’ and now you are not married, are you?”
“No, I’m not.” 
“Then who will be correct to say that you went to Tony’s house without your underpants on just to seduce him.”
“For God’s sake, that was a piece of my mind. I said that out of my own ignorance. They were mere girls’ talk, you know. You have to be in the dormitory to know what girl’s talk is all about. We really don’t mean most of the things we say. I mean, with all manner of sexually transmitted diseases in the air and miniskirts in vogue, it will be suicidal not to wear pants.”
“Are you wearing one now?”
“Objection. My lord, this is getting messy.”
“Credibility and bias. My lord, the rule is that under cross examination, no question is out of place.”
“Over ruled, you may answer the question.”
“Yes, I am wearing a blue G-string panties.”
“My lord, I ask that the lady on white shirt over there, sitting in the third row, to please take Miss Nnamani to the ladies to ascertain the truth.”
“Young lady, please, can you help us?” the judge asked, and then paused. “By the way, who are you?”
“I am Mrs. Barbara Kent. I am from the SSS.”
“Good, we want the truth and nothing but the truth, okay?”
“It’s alright, my lord.”
She took Frankie to the ladies and after a brief tension soaked moment, they came back.
“Yes, my young lady what did you find?” the judge asked. 
Everybody held their breath, including pastor Okechukwu.
“She is wearing a blue G string pants.” 
The crowd heaved a sigh of relief as murmuring erupted.
“Order!” the judge bellowed, ramming his gavel. “Order!”
The noise simmered down.
“Yes, you may continue, defense counsel.”
“Thank you, my lord. Miss Nnamani, I put it to you that you deliberately got pregnant to ruin your father’s political ambition because you hate him for not wanting you.”
“I always use condom. It is not so.”
People were talking and murmuring at the same time while others stood up and started to leave the court room. They have heard and seen enough.
“Order!” the judge bellowed again. “Order!” 
When the noise had died down a little, Frankie said, “May…I, may I say something, my lord?”
“Be brief.”
“Thank you, your honor. Em…em, there is so much confusion in our world today. On one hand, we are being told to avoid AIDS, at the same time, condoms are being advertised on our national TV stations. The NERDC recently inculcated sexuality education into the school curriculum, systematically approving free sex, sterilization and abortion. Having legalized free sex and abortion, now we are to approve of requirements to assist unwilling and protesting mothers to abort their babies.
“There is no doubt that we are the ones to decide our own fate. Is the situation not bad enough as it is? Armed robbers, cocaine snuffers and pushers, 419ers, hired assassins, kidnappers, loose girls and what have you and now we want to add baby killers. Since when has it become fashionable to kill? What do we want to pass on to the next generation? Are you teaching kids to be good and law abiding citizens or are you teaching them to be vagabonds, renegades, and egoists? Are you telling them that it’s okay to kill anyone who crosses their way? We have to choose a definite path; we cannot be in the middle. J. Descalzo of Spain says, ‘Of all possible errors, the worst is being systematically neutral.’ You can never remain on equal distance between good and evil, because that equal distance is, in itself, a form of evil.
“How can we be against abortion and at the same time, be for it? Is it possible to eat one’s cake and have it? I had run to this court hoping to get justice, but what did I get in return, exploitation, intimidation and ridicule. I have been reduced to ridicule and asked questions that makes me feel abused again and again. What sort of justice system are we running, one that exploits a woman again for asking for justice? What law system recognizes legality but discards morality? What right, I mean, which reproductive right gives a woman the right to kill other people, most especially her own unborn child? What science gives people the right to sleep with HIV carriers with a nearly weightless piece of rubber sheet? And what right gives people the right to sleep with everyone as long as it is consensual and protected?” she paused and wiped away tears.
“I came here feeling as dirty as a pig and as vulnerable as a lost child, but what did I get in return, locked doors, jeers and laughter. They have lied and even said I am mentally deranged and unfit to keep a baby. I have even been accused of threatening to commit suicide if I am allowed to keep my baby. What utter rubbish! I have heard the most preposterous and absurd lies I can ever imagine.
“The medical doctor, my father, the defense counsel and all their surrogates have really enjoyed themselves by telling you all manner of lies. The defense counsel has had a great time telling you how wide I spread my legs and how I had enjoyed the sex. But only God in heaven has the final judgment. You may think you are having the last laugh, but you are not. You have said I am mentally unfit to keep my baby, no problem, but I want to assure you just one thing. Yes, just one thing, and that is, if my baby is killed, I am going to live the worst of my life all the days of my life.
“I am equally troubled my lord, myself and many others, that in our world today, child after child is being killed before she has left her mother’s womb. What is most shameful is that we, who are grown, continue to allow our tiniest brothers and sisters to be destroyed. We do little to protect the vulnerable child who is at risk of being aborted. We do not only allow unsuspecting and innocent mothers but we pressurize them to make the mistake of aborting, instead of welcoming their children, who are utterly innocent, all in the name of reproductive health rights, pre natal sex selection or therapeutic abortion. We are guilty of both the avoidable deaths of millions of children, and of the unimaginable damage to mothers like me. If I had been sent out of school for attempting to commit an abortion, I wouldn’t have minded, instead I was sent out of school for attempting to protect one of our young brother or is it a sister, (I’ve not even been to the scan to determine the sex) who was schedule to be killed twice on the 18th and 27th. I have no legal defense for peacefully defending life. I have no legal defense, because those of you who have the power to do so, have passed laws which says refusal to provide sexual and reproductive health services to adolescents, single women and lesbians is an act of violence and discrimination against women and girls that violates sexual and reproductive rights, which are women’s human rights. Most disturbing, your honor is the law which says that you, your honor, were not a person from the moment of conception until birth. In order words, our law says that personhood begins when a ‘non-person’ comes forth from the womb of the ‘non-person’s’ mother. The first nine months of your life, as you grew and were nourished in the warmth and comfort of your mother’s womb, were in law, irrelevant. You existed but not legally were you acknowledged. Yet, the same law also says prenatal selection in favor of male babies is an act of gender discrimination and an act of violence. These statements would appear that the unborn child is, in fact, a person with rights. Yet, we assert that the violation of reproductive rights constitutes a crime against a woman’s human rights. Your honor, most of the laws in this country is based on reasons, although this is not always or has it always been the case. As recently as last century, women and slaves were not considered people in the laws of many countries. With clarity of hindsight, we can see how unreasonable and unjust this was. Must we live as blindly as those of past generations, defying reasons and justice to preserve the legal status quo? How can we, when the legal status quo permits the killing of over half a million children every year in our country?
“Your honor, many have proposed that one may voice opposition to abortion by means other than by breaking the law. I agree with this point. However, opposing abortion is not my sole intention only. I must do more than that. I believe the very essence of living is to care and protect one another and I believe that you, your honor were created at the moment of conception and that you are a unique being of infinite worth. I believe also that the tiniest of human beings have been made in the image of our creator and therefore more precious than anything and must be respected. This belief must be lived. In my heart and from the proceedings, it has become clear that I will go, by God’s grace, to the place where other aborted babies have gone. Already, several death threats have been made on my life. I am threatened by the death penalty every day. But I am ready to pay the supreme sacrifice rather than have my baby terminated. Some might think I am being disrespectful or behaving unjustly towards my parents and the school authorities. However, someone made an astute remark that, ‘An injustice anywhere is an injustice everywhere’. When there is an injustice towards a tiny, unborn child, there is injustice towards each one of us. Treating a tiny child justly does not deny justice for others. Justice, by nature, is incapable of breeding injustice. I’m…I’m done. Thank you, your honor.”
“Thank you, my daughter,” the judge said, highly touched by her speech. “Well, that will be all for today, hearing will continue on the 12th.” 
“Court!”