Maybe, Maybe Not

Diji’s mistake, he thought, was not to have said it had been a sexual attack from the beginning. The two men were both taken to the Garkuwa Hospital and admitted for treatment of knife wounds. The doctors also reported that Diji had had sexual relations with a man, although there was no proof when this had occurred. It was only then that Diji said it had been his aunt’s husband. It was not something to bring up in Nigeria, however, as homosexuality was a crime and deeply condemned by society.

Ekon’s story had been quite different, though. He had said that Diji came to his house in the night, while he slept, and that Ekon caught Diji trying to take money from where he knew it was kept by his uncle. When confronted, Diji had said he needed the money to pay to the male prostitute who had just lain with him and covered him. Ekon indignantly declared he would not pay for his nephew’s evil ways, and the fight with the knife ensued that had wounded them both.

Despite evidence to the contrary, Diji said, the mill owner, of course, was the one believed.

Why was Diji in sleeping shorts when he arrived at the station, he asked, if he had not been sleeping at the house, and why was the wounded Ekon found in a bedroom that wasn’t his and next to a bed that had been slept in? The police, however, were more interested in why unclean tea implements hadn’t been found. Both men had said tea had been served. Diji had said it was served because he had been sick; Ekon said he had served Diji tea upon waking and finding Diji in his house and before they had argued and fought. Ekon also asked how a knife would have been there if Ekon had not taken it up as soon as he woke to hear an interloper in his house.