Narrow Escape – Episode 6

NARROW ESCAPE

 

Episode Six:

 

Kofi Ansah: Captain please what did you see in the office of your commanding officer that was not making sense to you?

Captain Adjei: My brother, as I went round the desk in my commanding officer’s office, I stepped on a bullet shell. I quickly took it and hid it in my brea$t pocket, I searched through the files on his desk to see if I could see any note or relevant document that was left behind by my commanding officer. After a little search I gave up because I didn’t know who might be on his way to the crime scene. I came out of the office and as I was talking to the military police officers on guard, some men came into the building and introduced themselves that they were from HQ and that they are from the Forensic Department of the Ghana Armed Forces. I told them to wait as I had to make some calls to verify if truly they were who they said they were, the truth of the matter is I only wanted to buy time for myself because I wanted day to break fast and also for my boys from my undercover team to show up. My telephone call proved that the officers we indeed genuine so I allowed them access into the office and I stood at a close range to observe their work as pictures were taken by them, files and documents on his desk were also taken into evidence bags and boxes. Also they did other stuffs demanded to make the investigation work easy. They left shortly after they had taken extra informations from the officers who were in the building with the commanding officer that faithful day that he died. As a matter of fact, everyone at that moment was a suspect and anyone could be invited to the HQ for further interrogations about the death of our commanding officer. The CDS called me to sympathise with me and also promised to come over to the base to speak with us because he knew some of us were demoralised and mentally traumatised for loosing a senior colleague and father like figure. In other news he informed me that I was the interim commanding officer until a new person is appointed to head my base so I should take charge for now and see to it that we perform or discharge our duties deligently as expected of us. After the long phone call meeting with the CDS, I called for an immediate parade to address all the men and women on duty to break the news of the phone meeting I had with the CDS. The unfortunate thing that got some of us more worried was that for the next three months no one was to proceed on any form of leave except the person is very sick or his excuse was very pressing, all those who were due to go on leave had to cancel their plans and wait for the next three months to pass before they could proceed on leave.

Kofi Ansah: So Captain were you and your boys able to gather any relevant information?

Captain Adjei: Yes my brother, first I got that bullet shell and I wrote down the serial number on the bullet shell and went to the armoury to find out something. You know every bullet had a serial number on the shell of the bullet?

Kofi Ansah: I never knew until today because I have never held or had access to a real gun before.

Captain Adjei: Oh then now you know, as I went to the armoury, to my greatest surprise the serial number on the shell of the other bullets was not matching with the one I picked from my commanding officer’s office and that was very strange.

Kofi Ansah: Captain I am a bit lost here, can you throw more light on your just ended statement?

Captain Adjei: Kofi the service pistol that was assigned to my commanding officer was a 9mm Russian pistol and the bullet for that gun had its serial number different from that of 7mm or that of 11mm pistols.

Kofi Ansah: So you mean the bullet shell you took was not a 9mm bullet shell?

Captain Adjei: Precisely so my brother. With this discovery I was then convinced that something was not right somewhere and that there had been a foul play leading to the death of my commanding officer. I left the armoury with a renewed spirit knowing very well that, the suicide information that came out was a total lie and a tailor-made fabrications just to swerve our minds off the death of that hardworking and dedicated senior officer. Three days later, one of my boys in the undercover mission died. He died when they went to the shooting range and he was greasing his automatic rifle, I was told his rifle had ceased and when he was trying to cock it the rifle fired and the bullet went straight into his head.

Kofi Ansah: Wooow things were taking a swift turn at your base.

Captain Adjei: Yes my brother, you won’t believe it that the young officer came to my office in the morning before the went to the shooting range that he had gathered some vital informations that was in connection to the death of our commanding officer. That morning some high rank officers had come from the HQ for a brief meeting and I didn’t want them to know I and some boys of mine were doing our own investigations.

Kofi Ansah: Captain do you think your boy was murdered?

Captain Adjei: I won’t say it was a mere coincidence my brother. I know my boy was set up and innocently he fell victim to it and lost his life. What pained me the most was that, his wife had given birth to triplet and she underwent surgery just some days before he met that painful death. I was so alarmed and devastated with the news of his death. How were we going to break the news to his wife and how she was going to take the news was the headache of mine that I couldn’t endure. In a space of three days, two gallant men had joined their ancestors in a similar gun death. I and a team went to the demised officer’s house and when we got to his house and the wife not seeing her husband in our midst, she knew there was a big problem somewhere. Her mother who was by then visiting received us and requested to know our purpose of visit that day and when the news of death was broken to them, all hell broke lose. It was an awful and awkward moment of my life, seeing a young lady who had just undergone surgery recently and giving birth to triplet in that agonising mood broke my heart and that of the other officers who were part of the entourage who went to the officer’s house with me. What drenched my heart most was when the officer’s mother-in-law broke the news that, the dead officer was supposed to escort his wife to the hospital but he told them he had a very important information for his boss so he will rather meet them at the hospital at a said time only for us to bring the news of his untimely death. We left that place filled with pain and deep regret, on our way back to the base we were so quite in the car that even if a feather fell, it could make a sound to us. A short ceremony in memory of him was held the moment we got back to base and after addressing my officers, I dismessed them and went back to my office. I sent a signal to one of the undercover team members to alert the others that tonight we were going to meet again just so we brief each other with what we have been able to gather. For me I knew the firearm that killed my commanding officer was not a service pistol or sidearm as we were made to believe. I wanted to know what my boys and lady had also stumbled upon. I left to the house feeling very sad for the day but hey that was life, it was never fair, never assured and always unpredictable. I got home on time to meet supper ready so I ate, went to shower and left the house to our meeting point after taking a nap of two hours. As I got to the place, my boys and lady were already seated waiting for me so we went down to business right away. The facts my team members had gathered so far was overwhelming I was dumbfounded when everyone was giving details of his or her findings. The bottom line of the matter was, my commanding officer was murder and the people behind it made it look like he committed suicide.

Kofi Ansah: Hold you horses Captain, drink you water as I take this short commercial break. My cherished viewers watching us from your respective homes, online and listeners, the heat that is mounting in this studio is extremely hot. Check with the time, it is 8:40pm and the program you are watching or listening to is your number evening talk show in the whole country and the program is “THE BITTER TRUTH”, I will be right back after this short commercial break, my special guest in the studio with me is Captain Kwame Adjei, stick and stay.

 

 

To be continued…

 

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