ELEVEN HOURS TO THE OPERATION.
POLICE STATE COMMAND, RIVERS STATE.
The D-day had finally arrived. Still, the Rivers State Police Commissioner was yet to make up his mind as regards the call he received a week ago.
Sitting alone in his office, he had been pondering over the matter that dominated his heart and faltered his concentration. He knew that any decision he made could affect him in a profound way, and this was why he hesitated more than usual.
Over time, he'd contemplated his options. Should he disregard the information given to him by the unknown caller? A little voice of reasoning admonished him otherwise.
But there was nothing substantial about the information Abubakar received from the anonymous caller and that was why he had tried to wave it off as the ravings of a madman, but that place of reasoning in his heart advised him, or better still, admonished him, to take credence to the information he'd been given.
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Unable to decide yet on what to do, he immediately distracted himself from the conundrum at hand by calling two of his sons who were currently studying outside the country.
After his call with his sons, he tried to engage into other activities to distract him more, but the imbroglio never tapered. If anything, it escalated.
Thus, for the sake of his own peace of mind, he decided not to put off the matter at hand any longer.
Alone with his thoughts, he analyzed several facts which eventually helped him draw up a conclusion.
One was how the caller had managed to contact him. The unknown caller had contacted him via a means that no outsider had ever been able to get access to. Abubakar reasoned that for someone to go through such extreme measures to pass information to him was worth giving a thought. Two was how detailed the information and instruction had been. No cooked up tale could be that flawless logic-wise.
He decided that he would do as the unknown caller had instructed, watch how everything would pan out and then wait for the next call from the incognito caller.
He'd make this an undercover operation. Everyone outside the concerned party, he surmised, would be none the wiser.
Everything would be sharp, fast and clean. He knew the right prodigies for the job. These young officers always came through for him, and tonight would be no different.
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The unknown caller had told him like a soothsayer that two of the armed robbers would die, but Abubakar determined that all the armed robbers would be captured alive. And he'd achieve this by leaving specific instructions to the best officers that he had personally handpicked.
"The game is on, my friend, or whoever you are," Abubakar whispered.
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NINE HOURS TO THE OPERATION.
Savior, aka Tiger, sat down in his favorite hideout with a beaming smile on his face. Try as he might, he couldn't stop the euphoria he felt. Like a river, he let it flow freely.
The time had finally come. So far, everything has been working perfectly according to his blueprint.
It was time to mete out proper vengeance and justice. Evil must pay, and good must prevail.
Evil must pay, good must prevail. Evil must pay, good must prevail. Tiger chanted the mantra over and over in his heart.
After a brief appraisal of himself and the mission he was going to carry out that night, he nodded to himself, satisfied that all was in order, and then headed for his wine bar.
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Taking out a bottle of Jack Daniels, he poured himself a tall glass of the liquid and casually gulped down its content.
He resisted the temptation of imbibing multiple glasses. He needed to be clear-headed for tonight's mission.
Putting away the wine glass and bottle of Jack Daniels, he moved over to his study room, took out his diary and went through his meticulous plans for the umpteenth time. Satisfied that every ‘t’ had been crossed and every ‘I’ had been dotted, he closed the diary and held it close to his heart as though it was a treasure trove.
Beaming a smile, he repeated the commissioner's words like a challenge.
"Let the game begin."
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SIX HOURS TO THE OPERATION.
The day wasn't going well for Ayanate.
Today was one of those days when the reality of her condition crash-landed upon her with a heaviness that could rival the weight of a loaded cargo ship.
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She was battling a heavy dose of depression today. Yes, life had not always been a bed of roses or a smooth ride for her.
Even with her sightless condition, she still battled with life situations like every normal human being, be it emotional, psychological or physical issues. A lot of people in the society who didn't know better thought that when someone became physically challenged in any part of the body, such a person would turn oblivious to every other life issue. They assumed, erroneously, that there’d be no more difficulties for such an individual apart from the blindness, crippled legs, deaf ears or any other bodily challenge.
If only they knew that bodily impairment was just a compound exponent on already existing problems.
Especially in places like Africa where being physically challenged was a stigma. Isolation in the midst of a crowd would become the order of the day. People would avoid such individuals because they felt the physical challenge was a curse or a payment for sins, and they wouldn’t want to be contaminated with the disadvantaged person’s
‘disease’.
What others could go a mile to achieve, the physically challenged would have to go double miles to prove their capability of achieving. And even after proving their capability, not everyone would be thrilled to have a physically challenged person on their bandwagon, because as far as the society is concerned, the physically challenged were done for and life would never be the same for them.
Some even went as far as believing that once a person became physically challenged, he or she would be as harmless as a dove. The handicapped couldn't even hurt a fly. They couldn't carry out evil activities or think negative thoughts.
The memory of a statement from the speaker from one of the visiting groups they’d entertained back in her special school always made Ayanate chuckle.
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"These people cannot sin or have negative imaginations because they don't have eyes to see the evil that we see everyday in our society," the speaker, who was a middle-aged woman, had remarked innocently. It took every willpower and respect they had for their visitors for the blind students and staff not to burst out laughing.
The heart of man is desperately wicked, the Holy Book says. And it didn't exclude the physically challenged. At least, they were also humans.
So, no doubt, Ayanate struggled with her own problems.
The absence of a father, her blindness, the everyday struggles with life, education and other activities, living the life she didn't want to live as a physically challenged person. All these boomed their presence in her heart today, and it was almost driving her to the point of mental and emotional breakdown.
There are times you tell yourself that you are alright regardless of the problems that are surrounding you. In spite of everything, you still push yourself up from your bed every morning, pushing it one day at a time because you are hopeful that there is light at the end of the tunnel. But one day, maybe you let your guard down or something, and you finally hit rock bottom and you are in a daze. Nothing makes sense anymore. Confusion flies everywhere and you feel like you're tired of fighting. At that point you just want two things to happen: You either want the temporal relief or a total end. But you soon realize that there is a big difference when you are not alone, when you’re sure that someone greater than you is solidly with you. You see the spark of light at the end of the tunnel. Then, you begin to frantically reach for it.
That was what Ayanate felt.
And as a child of God, Ayanate began to conquer her foe with the weapon that the Greater One who lives inside of her had given her by quoting the Word of God.
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"The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want."
"Greater is he who is in me than the devil who is in the world."
"No weapon formed against me shall ever prosper and every tongue that rises against me in judgment, I shall condemn."
"If God is for me, who can be against me?"
As she kept fighting with her weapon, defeating and disarming the enemy, she became energized. She felt as though a greater entity suddenly appeared before her and tossed her more weapons.
"My life is hidden in Christ and Christ in God."
"I am seated with Christ in heavenly places, far above principalities and powers."
"Let no man trouble me because I bear the mark of Christ on my body."
"He that dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty."
"God has taken me from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of his dear son Jesus Christ."
"I am a partaker of Christ's inheritance."
More weapons, more victories.
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