Tarasha

~~Abuja, Nigeria ~~

11am

The shock and grief that came with the news of Jubril

Lawal"s a.s.sa.s.sination 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 pa.s.sed 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 gla.s.s 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 p.i.s.sed 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 gla.s.s cup.

"We were friends; secret friends, n.o.body knew our

a.s.sociation. 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

doc.u.ments 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 a.s.sist 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"