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Kelly was in a hurry to make money when he left school. Though the unemployment rate was very high due to the poor managerial skill of the government over the years, some people still managed to get work especially if they're not insisting on high paying jobs. The situation also needed one to be patient and persistent.
Kelly wasn't such a one with much patience so, he joined a gang of fraudsters to make quick money. His uncle, Dennis was against such a way of life. He tried to dissuade him from that way and said, "My brother Kelly, I want you to refrain from defrauding people".
"Uncle, you know there's no job anywhere", Kelly replied quickly.
"I agree getting a job these days is not easy but, one can still find some little little things to engage in without going into crime", Dennis advised.
"Uncle, if you find any, let me know. I'll gladly accept".
"Ok, I'll see what I'll do", Dennis promised.
Few days after, Dennis met an old police friend who disclosed to him that the police would soon carry out a recruitment exercise. He requested that his friend should keep him updated about the exercise.
It didn't take much time for the advertisement to come up from the police. Dennis put pressure on his police friend to ensure he did all that was necessary to have Kelly recruited.
Eventually, Kelly got the job but sadly, he didn't last long in the police service. It appeared his old way as a fraudster had eaten deep into him as he continued with his fraudulent lifestyle. He was caught, extorting money from motorists. After the first and second warnings, he was dismissed from the service.
Kelly simply slipped back into his old way as a fraudster. This time, it didn't take long for the long arm of the law to catch up with him, and he was sentenced to three years in prison. But, something happened.
There was this charity organization, Transformation Agenda whose members were always visiting the prison every weekend. Their aim was to correct prisoners' negative way of life, and inculcate a new mind in them for good.
At the onset, Kelly didn't want to have anything to do with them. In fact, their presence was a disturbance and a source of anger to him.
But one day, he eavesdropped on them as they were talking to one of the prisoners, not because he had any regards for them but, just for want of something to do as he was idle. Interestingly, their discussion struck a cord in his mind, and he wanted to hear more. He got closer to them and heard more.
The next weekend the Transformation Agenda members came, Kelly was the first to call them to himself. After their discussion that day, they gave him a book titled, "Climbing to the top".
The book was about a wayward young man who the society had written off as irredeemable but surprisingly, he turned from his bad ways to become a campaigner of good morals. His turning point came about when he had an accident that landed him in a hospital. He was in coma for two months.
When he woke up, he told a story of how he found himself in a thick forest alone, roaming about. He was seeing people at a distance but couldn't get to them. He kept trying to leave the forest to no avail. It was only when someone he didn't even see tapped his shoulder and told him to stop his wayward life except he wanted to come back to the forest.
Kelly read the book cover to cover. He cried in his heart that night and became sober. He realized he had been wrong all this while. Uncle Dennis had been right, trying to stop him from living a life of a fraudster.
The next visit of Reformation Agenda to the prison appeared to be for Kelly alone. He openly confessed he had been a bad fellow but that now, he had seen the light. He said he had made up his mind to change for good.
After studying him for sometime, and realizing he was sincere and truly repentant, the group wrote a letter to the comptroller of prisons for a pardon for Kelly. The letter was passed to the right quarters, and Kelly was granted a pardon, and released after 10 months in prison.
In fact, he was reabsorbed into the police where he served with dedication to reach the position of Assistant Inspector. Those who knew Kelly in the past were surprised he turned a new leaf to live a good chapter in his life.
