WHAT HAPPENED AT PU25B: EP 7
Zannu walks out of the voting room and scans the human-littered landscape. He sights the flowing floral gown and walks towards Madam Curry.
‘Went well, eh?’ She asks.
Zannu shrugs. He turns and steals a glance at the voting room. Through the window, he can see JJ briefly pace the room.
‘Told you so... We’ve got to keep the faith somehow, you know. So you’re leaving…?’
‘...No, I can’t leave. Something is wrong.’ Zannu responds with a furrowed brow.
‘Wrong? Where?’
Madam Curry’s voice fades into nothingness in Zannu's mind. He takes a deep breath and heads back for the voting room.
*
A short while later, Zannu and two young men stand with placards at the school gate, urging voters to stay and protect their votes. They snicker at Zannu’s refined features and the whiff of oyinbo accent in his voice but ignore he and his cohorts nonetheless.
A middle-aged man with a half-closed eye approaches the gate and hears Zannu’s petition. He stops for a moment, brows furrowed. Then he walks briskly into the exiting crowd. A few moments later, he emerges, the crowd in his wake.
In the distance, Madam Curry’s smile widens.
*
‘That’s the last person.’ JJ sighs and the room goes silent as the voter walks out.
Aziza purses her lips. ‘So, what now?’
‘I dunno. I mean, we stood our ground—’
‘Wetin we kon gain now?’ Policarp asks.
‘Gain? We don’t have to gain nothing! Inside of me, I know I’ve done my best. So we just need to go out there—’
JJ scans outside through the window. She spots the large group of people returning to the voting point. Then she sights Zannu and his placard-bearing cohorts. It hit her in that moment.
‘Of course! Get the people to stay and protect the votes!’
‘Huh?’ Aziza asks in befuddlement.
‘Be right back.’
JJ picks up the megaphone and gestures to the voting items. Aziza nods and follows JJ to the door.
‘Wait, what’d you tell that Zannu guy when he came back?’
JJ smiles wryly. ‘Let’s just say it’s for good.’
As JJ exits, Policarp reaches uncertainly for his backpack.
*
JJ is seen standing on a tree trunk outside the classroom block, speaking passionately into the megaphone. Faces appraise her petite frame as though wondering how a frame so seemingly frail can produce that much passion.
On the far end of the field, Madam Curry has joined Zannu and his team in persuading voters from leaving.
*
‘Arm yourselves! Fight for your votes.’ Madam Curry’s pipe-thin voice rings out through the megaphone amid the mayhem of bodies scattering in all directions. ‘Bring out your phones. Show the world what’s happening!’
A moment before, Viper and one dozen red-eyed goons armed with machetes and broken bottles had charged in from behind the crowd. Viper’s sleeves are rolled up and his waistline reveals a pistol tucked behind his trouser.
With the crowd stampeding on sighting the armed goons, JJ scurries into the voting room, and Zannu and the half-eyed man step between the armed goons and the crowd. Viper produces his pistol as Madam Curry’s voice rings out a safe distance away.
‘Show the world what is happening. Yes! They can’t win.’
*
In another part of the compound, a young man swings his phone camera around and speaks sporadically into it.
‘The situation is getting tense, guys... These guys are clearly high and there’s no telling what they can do… That’s why we need to do this…, stand against them and vote them out… Yes. We have the right to cast and protect our votes…’
He swings his camera to the empty security outpost.
‘Meanwhile, where are the police? Aren’t they supposed to be here at this time?’
He sights a policeman peeing behind the brush in the distance and tails him to a hidden metal shed where he finds the others, sitting, arms down, chatting. He maintains a healthy distance and says into the camera.
‘Officers, what d’you have to say about the brewing crisis at the –’
The men quickly avert their faces. One reaches for his rifle.
‘Young man, turn that thing off right now or I shoot you.’
The young man ducks into the shadows and runs like a bat out of hell. He stops some distance off to catch his breath and realises no one is pursuing. He points his camera at the shed.
‘Guys! Can you believe this? Those guys must’ve been paid off!’
His feet pick up as he hears movement behind him. He realises that its Madam Curry and a few others dashing towards him. He turns his camera to them.
‘Have you seen the police?’ Madam Curry asks, anxious.
He points to the concealed metal shed and Madam Curry and the others dart in the direction of the shed. The young man ponders briefly if it is wise to return to the lion’s den. He resolves to follow at a safe distance. He speaks into the camera,
‘I wonder what will happen now…’
