Tarasha – Chap 12 pt 1

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**Saturday; after several uneventful days **

~~Abuja, Nigeria ~~

11am

The shock and grief that came with the news of Jubril Lawal’s assassination was still very fresh in the African atmosphere. The streets were flooded with people rushing the newspaper vendors to get their copies so as update themselves on the latest discoveries surrounding the death.

Journalists also flooded the street to get the farewell speeches from the citizens whose lives have been affected in one way or the other by Jubril Lawal. Everyone had something good to say about Jubril, from his charity works to his service and commitment to the nation’s growth, they all had felt his impact in one way or the other. None except for a middle aged man expressed doubts in the man’s integrity and commitment. The middle aged man after praising Jubril for his visible works, paused before talking about the likely cause of his death.

‘It is possible that the man had an evil secret hidden with some people and they had to come and demand for his life. And it is also possible that the murderers are just enemies of the country and they killed Jubril because he refused to agree with a selfish plan of theirs’ the man had said while being interviewed by a journalist from the national TV station.

‘I really don’t have much to say anymore, all I know is that he was a good man’ Mallam Jefa said into the mic with a sad face.

‘All right, thanks for speaking with us’ the reporter said and left Jefa’s presence to face the camera alone.

~~

Dakolo glanced at the beautiful buildings as they drove through the streets of Abuja. The cab man took his time to tell Dakolo the names of every street and what they did in every magnificent building that they passed by. The cab man was never silent, no wonder he didn’t put on the radio in the car, he himself was doing the job of a radio.

‘Sir, so why have you come to Abuja? Business? Pleasure? Both? Or none?’ The cab man asked as he took a glance at Dakolo seated at the back.

‘I’m relocating’ Dakolo replied him, enjoying the man’s jolly nature.

‘Relocating?’ The man stared at him. ‘What about your family? Where are they?’

‘My wife and kids are in port harcourt, they would join me after the school session ends’

‘Wow! That’s a long time, why didn’t you wait for them to finish the session?’ The cab man adjusted the front top mirror so that he can see Dakolo’s face from there.

‘I couldn’t wait, I was transferred at my place of work’

‘Oh! I see…’

‘Yeah. So what about your wife and kids?’

‘They’re all here in Abuja. My wife runs a mini restaurant and my two kids are in college’

‘Good’ Dakolo said with a chuckle.

~~

Jefa turned back to the road, he picked out the piece of paper from his chest pocket again. ‘Tara works in Elymax hotel’ he read out the words which he had written down after the first day he had the encounter with his younger sister.

Several days had gone by and Jefa had made the decision to meet her and explain things to her. What delayed him was his lack of proof. The Omotara he saw had now developed into a big girl, she looked highly educated too and he believed that she would not just accept his stories if he had nothing to show as proof. Now, he was bringing a picture and a diary with him. A picture which contained the whole family’s image as at that time in it. The diary was their mum’s. He had taken the diary from his mother’s room and hid it behind in his trousers, planning to read it after the celebration of Omotara’s birthday that night, but he never had the chance to read it on that day. His parents were killed and he and his remaining younger ones were abducted on the same day. He later found the picture in the middle of the diary on the day he opened it.

He hoped that Omotara would be able to recall by seeing the picture and even the diary, which their mum had always warned them not to touch anytime she brought it out.

Deep down inside, he wished that Omotara would be a person of influence in the country; perhaps an influential lawyer or a friend to one who would be able to fight their cause for them. He was still hungry for revenge, he was tired of seeing the faces of the perpetrators of the evil that was done several years ago to him and his family and several thousands of other Nigerian families and kids, now in government offices parading themselves as saints and nice people.

He waved down a taxi and bent over to look inside. A man was already sitting comfortably at the back. ‘Elymax hotel’

‘Elymax? That’s where we’re going to’ The taxi man replied, giving him a surprised look.

‘May I join you?’ Jefa replied indifferently, already trying to open the front door.

‘Okay, if you can pay five  thousand naira’

‘What? For what? I’ll pay you two thousand’

‘No, I can’t take anything less than three thousand’

‘I’ll pay you two thousand five’ Jefa said and entered into the cab without waiting for a reply.

++++

~~ Lagos, Nigeria ~~

11am

Laughter filled the room as the two friends joked and chatted happily. Chief Gab was in his casual native wear seated on the sofa in the middle of his large living room while Chief Nonso was seated on the sofa opposite to him, in a more official wear; his black trouser was matched with a black waist coat on a blue shirt.

‘You know I’ve been really thinking of something new’ Chief Gab interrupted the laughter, taking a sip of wine from the glass cup in front of him.

‘What’s that?’ Chief Nonso wiped off the tear formed in his eyes as a result of the heavy laughter and paused to listen.

‘I’m thinking we are being too harsh in judging some of these people’

Chief Nonso cleared his throat. ‘Why do you say so?’

‘We could just make Tarasha leave them alive after decapitating them; in a way that they’ll be able to see our success after we finish our plans while they are suffering’

‘Hmm… That sounds like a good idea’ Chief Nonso heaved a sigh and gave Chief Gab a stare. ‘Chief’ he called calmly.

‘Yes’ Chief Gab who was busy with his iPad looked up to see the serious look on Chief Nonso’s face. He narrowed his gaze as if to ask Chief Nonso what the matter was.

‘You’ve not still told me the reason we have some people on our list. I don’t understand why we are punishing some of them yet’

‘I think we talked about this before’ Chief Gab replied, standing up from his seat. He took the wine bottle and proceeded to the bar to take another wine bottle.

‘Yes, Chief Onwuli said before his death that you’ll explain to before we begin but when I asked you, you said you’ll tell me soon. I’m wondering why the “soon” is not yet here’

Chief Gab walked back to his seat with a bottle of wine, he dropped it on the stool and walked to the flat screen TV to switch it on. He turned back to the sofa and returned to his former seating position without hurrying, not minding Chief Nonso’s eyes which was escorting him all about, awaiting his response.

‘If we don’t take care of these people, they’ll come back for us when we rise again’ Chief Gab finally said, looking straight in his friend’s eyes. Chief Nonso was already getting pissed off.

‘Several years ago, Seven of us were involved in a certain illegal businesses. Five of us were politicians. At that time, we were all successful, but we wanted more ; we wanted to lay up riches for our kids, we didn’t want them to suffer like we did’ Chief Gab paused his story to pour wine from the bottle into the glass cup.

‘We were friends; secret friends, nobody knew our association. Four of us were in the ruling party, ADP as at the time we started working together. One was in the strongest opposition party, PCP while the remaining two including the minister of health who was dropped recently were not involved in politics then . Two deflected from the ruling party to the strongest opposition party before the next election on seeing that there were little chances of victory for the ruling party at the polls. The remaining two of us remained faithful to the ruling party. The election year came and we were defeated at the polls. The new government came in and began to investigate corrupt deals of the past government. Although, ours was not really a political crime; meaning it didn’t involve stealing or mismanagement of country’s fund kept in our trust, the crimes commission began to look into the personal lives of some politicians. This got us scared and the seven of us held an urgent secret meeting, we concluded that we would stop all illegal deals after we concluded the hanging fake drugs consignment and do our best to cover up our track. But unknowingly to I and Onwuli, my friend who was in my party, our counterparts in the new ruling party and the other two non-politicians had other plans. The only one out of the them who didn’t agree to their plans was found dead mysteriously several days after the meeting; I didn’t know it was connected to our meeting then’

Chief Gab took another pause and took a sip of the wine. He put back the cup on the stool and refilled it. ‘Unluckily for me, I was the one in charge of the execution of the last fake drugs consignment. Some of our secret documents were released to the police. The late minister of health was the NAFDAC chairman then, he didn’t show me pity at all. Jubril Lawal was the head of the law enforcement agency that handled my case; neither he showed any pity. I  was indicted, found guilty in court and was sentenced to ten years imprisonment for a crime that we all committed. Onwuli and his whole family were murdered when he tried to speak out for me’

Chief Gab paused and stood up, taking the cup of wine with him. ‘The last time I went to Onwuli’s family grave, I swore that I was going to repay everyone of them even if it was going to take my last breath’

Chief Nonso heaved a deep sigh as he stood up and stared straight at Chief Gab. He now understood why Chief Gab was bent on seeing the death of everyone on the list. Chief Onwuli’s family’s murder was a very gruesome one. Onwuli was made to see the bodies of each member of his family including the young ones chopped into pieces by the murderers and himself was given a poison that killed him slowly. Onwuli was a saviour to Nonso, being the one who helped Nonso survive a life threatening disease and also brought Nonso’s family out of pain and distress.

Chief Nonso let out another deep breath as he remembered the promise he made to Chief Onwuli seconds before the man gave up the ghost. Chief Onwuli had made him promise to stand by his friend, Gabriel in prison and also help him when he comes out. He also made the promise to assist Gabriel in whatever he does to take revenge for Chief Onwuli’s death.

‘So you see, we are delivering judgement to those who deserves it’ Chief Gab added, smacking his lips as he took in another sip.

‘None of them deserves to be left alive, they should all die’ Nonso said, giving a determined stare at Chief Gab. ‘I think we should even increase their pain, make their death as horrible as Chief Onwuli’s’

‘Yes’ Chief Gab agreed. He took another sip from the cup before speaking again. ‘And I’ve been thinking of something else’

‘What’s that?’

‘How to get rid of Tarasha after we finish all the enemies. She seems to be very powerful and fearless, she might become a threat to us in the future’

‘So, what’s your plan?’

‘I don’t have any yet. I fear her myself’

Chief Nonso smiled. He gave Chief Gab an awkward look. ‘So you mean that with all the wisdom you’ve used to organise the big men’s destruction, you’re afraid of a little girl?’

Chief Gab hissed in reply first before thinking deeply on Nonso’s statement. He spoke again after a some seconds of horrible silence. ‘You’re right, no matter how powerful she seems to be, she is a small girl and she does not have the wisdom we have’

‘Exactly… She will just fall into a little trap set for her, we only need to be very wise’

… To be continued

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