Chapter nineteen
“Help! Help!! Help!!! It’s a ghost!” Obinna was also confused and surprised! He wondered what was happening. He continued climbing and the stark reality instantly dawned on him that he must have been taken for dead. However, he strolled and sauntered home, whistling and humming an old sweet song. It was a very bizarre and shocking sight to people when they saw him walking his way leisurely towards his house. Neighbours took to their heels when they saw him approaching. The fright that descended on them was chilling and palpable.
“Yee, my God! That’s Obinna’s ghost!” screamed a young woman with a baby strapped to her back. She turned and ran inside her house, breathing heavily with fear. She almost had a heart attack.
“Yee! A ghost! Help!” Those were the words that came from the mouth of the frightened people. Before one could say “Holy Moses” he was right at the door of his house. The cooks, drivers and the housemaids took to their heels in a disorderly manner. The fear that consumed the children and made them bury their heads under a bed was as dreadful as a gathering storm. When rumour filtered into the ears of the children and women that the supposedly dead man was on his way home, they couldn’t believe it.
“Darling! Is that you or your ghost?” Ifeoma asked for the umpteenth time. Funke was yet to find the courage to come out to the living room to see her husband. She was still as frightened as Macbeth before the ghost of Banquo.
“Don’t be afraid, sweetie, it’s me and not my ghost! I didn’t die as you people thought. I only passed out,” he said with a smile. “The lion never dies like that. When the elephant finally dies, the jungle would echo its earth-shattering howl for a long time!” he added, chuckling with excitement.
The shock, he received on learning the events that took place in the disgusting anticipation of his death was indescribable. He couldn’t just bear the trauma. He simply went into his room, collected a car key and drove away. He was unsure of where to go but while on the highway, he decided to spend the night with a friend and colleague in the crime world.
The vulture-eyed AK 47 was delighted to see his boss. He looked down from the great height of his magnificent house and felt concerned at the appearance of his master as one going through the worst of a crucible of humiliation in life. AK 47 in his late 30s was a very tall, dark-skinned and handsome man who liked to wear expensive gold on his neck and arms. His plethora of girlfriends nicknamed him “Jewel” which showed that he was passionate about it. He was never angry nor did he feel felt insulted when addressed as such.
As Obinna alighted from the car, AK 47 climbed down the stairs, dressed in very expensive clothes. He adorned his neck and arms with cherished gold and precious jewelries. He ran to his boss and shock hands with him.
“Welcome to my little hut big boss, I planned to visit you in the hospital when I learnt about the food-poisoning stuff of your wife. However, I was very busy with a big deal worth 15 million US dollars. The road is clear now…we’ve got to hit the operation tonight or miss it forever. I was about coming to your house to discuss it big time when you called about your coming,” he spoke with wry smile and a contagious yawn.
My man…it’s a waste of energy. My wives and children ain’t worth the risk. I’m out of it. I will persuade Mosquito to lead the attack tonight. He is as good too,” he gave a countenance of finality as disappointing as wet gunpowder. He was really as complacent as the cat with regards to the operation, but when the other female members of the gang kept an unmitigated pressure on him, he finally gave in. Everyone was surprised to see the present weakness of his mind. He was really a shadow of himself. This was a man widely acknowledged in the world of crime in Africa as a grand master when it comes to comprehensive posture for defense and attack. The dexterity and harmony between him and any kind of gun remained a mystery. He was simply a genius in the choice he made from the outset of life. Little wonder, he had sent many police men to their graves over the years.
About five hours later, the family of Chief Obi while having supper heard a hoarse and guttural voice: “Open this door or we’ll break it down! Open it quickly or you all will be dead meats!”
“Who are those people banging at the door and threatening me?” The Chief asked himself. He was terrified; a departure from the euphoria he was basking in some minutes ago with his family about being the next governor in the forthcoming polls of the state. His heart pulsated with indescribable trepidation. He could hear war-like and bizarre voices downstairs.
“Who could these people be?” he knew his family was in for big trouble by all indications. His wives and children too were shocked and frightened when they heard the blood-chilling utterances of the bandits. The children were really alarmed; they knew that bigger trouble was in the offing for their kind-hearted Daddy.
Chief then summoned courage and moved towards the door to allow the unknown attackers in, since he knew he hadn’t done anything evil or atrocious. The people threatening him were a deadly criminal gang led by Obinna. The old man was at the moment fidgety and trembled to open the door. But he knew he must just open it, even if it would cost him his life. With shaky and trembling fingers, he opened the door but alas, what happened afterwards was too terrible and horrifying to recount.
“Yeah, we got you at last!” the leader of the gang hollered. “The devil will set fire on you now if you don’t corporate with us.”
“What service can I give my children?” Chief asked innocently. In a jiffy, about three hefty-looking men of the gang descended on him and beat him black and blue.
“God help me! Help! Help!!! Help!!!” Chief screamed as he was being assaulted. His screams further infuriated the angry bandits. His wife however was forced to come to his rescue.
“Please don’t kill him…Please in the name of God”. Njideka begged in tears as the fiery hands continued to descend on her husband. She started crying when she saw blood gushing out of his body. She was really scared and moved to pity.
“Stop! Stop!” ordered Obinna. “We must not shed his blood! He is a good man!”
The chief was already lying on the floor in a pool of his blood. The woman was on her knees, in tears begging them to spare her husband, who though looked every inch a dead man regained consciousness shortly and stood up.
“Chief, we are sorry for that,” the giant-sized leader apologized. “We are convinced that you are willing to cooperate with us now. We’ll deal mercilessly with you if you act funny! Just play according to the rules and you will be fine…I repeat…if you act funny, I will slaughter all your children and your wife before your eyes. I will drink their blood right in the presence of the whole world! And I will kill you with this dagger I’m holding,” Obinna barked while swinging a sharp-edged dagger in his right hand. Chief was drenched in sweat as the leader of the gang pulled him closer and pointed the nozzle of the gun to his chest with an order.
The chief led the way to his room for Obinna and three other bandits to pick up the millions of naira he hid under the rug for his campaign for votes. To his great surprise, not a kobo could be found. The chief was grief-stricken and sad. He mopped the tears off his face with the tip of his cloth. His heart was heavy. He didn’t know what to do. He shook his head sorrowfully and sobbed. He silently prayed that something calamitous and disastrous wouldn’t happen. Ten minutes later after hot investigations with highly philosophically probing questions, the truth was revealed. Sadly enough, there was no money in the house. His eldest son had made away with all the money much earlier in the day, probably to massage his already over-bloated wayward lifestyle. The Chief offered to let go of his most exotic cars! His offer was gladly accepted and the cars’ keys immediately exchanged hands. Just when everybody thought that the war was over someone said:
“Boss, let’s go to the woman and the ladies! Maybe it will teach them not steal from the man as the guy did,” Scorpion suggested. Scorpion was a tall, heavily-built man, with a string-like moustache. He was wielding a gun and a sparkling machete. His body was adorned with a brown leather amulet believed to have supernatural powers for protection. Immediately, six fierce-looking male bandits received a go-ahead order from their Boss, they rushed in commando fashion to the woman and her three female children. The rapists were still smacking their lustful lips with utmost delight when the leader called for a stop. It appeared that, they were pulled to and entangled with by the charming and enchanting bodies by a magical spell.
Chief had wished that death would come immediately and plunge him out of the “lustful drama” or at least some good spirits would come and give him an overdose of a sleep-inducing capsule.
“I say…leave them now!” Obinna shouted to the stone-faced and unrelenting Scorpion; who had gone to drive in again. The angry leader pushed the nozzle of the gun harder on his chest and was about pressing the trigger when they heard the loud and deafening siren of the police. If he had ignored the order, the penalty would have been an immediate death. Obinna had a history of giving such penalties during operations so easily; so Scorpion thought it wise to corporate immediately.
“Surrender all your weapons!” a voice rang from the megaphone. It was the voice of the Lagos state commissioner of police.
“We have got you all surrounded! There’s no escape! Put your weapons down and come out or you will all die!”
At that point, armored tanks of the police were everywhere. Obinna ordered his men to lay down their arms. He knew that the game was up. There were about sixty policemen in the vicinity. The members of the gang protested against the order of giving up like cowards without a good fight.
“The tiger is never afraid of the hunter but the gun in the hunter’s hand. I had a strong premonition that we might not make it today. It takes a warrior to stop a warrior. We simply lack the required fighting spirit today. How do you want us to face them? When most you are still panting heavily from the marathon attack? We all know who we are. The foot prints of the elephant and the antelope are not the same. Let us be wise; we lost today, we shall win again and come back stronger,” Obinna pontificated convincingly and with a brave heart. Minutes later, they were arrested, handcuffed and driven away in about ten police vans.
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When Ifeoma heard the news of her husband’s arrest, she saw an opportunity to revisit her heinous and devilish plan of killing Funke through food poisoning. She had been nursing this wicked and satanic plan for a long time. She always thought of how to take over the house so that she could inherit the properties and assets of the stupendously rich guy who was now in the net. Now, she was in a hurry to act fast. She reasoned that if she should die, her husband would have no other option than to will his properties to her and her kids. To carry out her demonic plan, she went to the market and bought some sweet apples and injected them with a very potent poison.
Funke thanked her on getting the apples and put them inside the refrigerator, with the intention of eating them later. She didn’t suspect anything evil as their relationship had for once improved wonderfully in the past few weeks. About an hour later, she took out two of the apples to eat. She was about eating them when she got a call from a friend based in the United States of America. She put the apples on the dining table as the call persisted. While on the call Uche and Ikechukwu strolled in happily towards her. They were the children Ifeoma had in her failed marriage to Mr. Peter. The children requested for an apple. Funke paused during the call and gave them an apple. The innocent kids took a bite each. It was a most gruesome and shocking scenario! The two kids collapsed instantly and started convulsing and foaming through the mouth.
Funke dropped her call and screamed for help. Before she could get help, the two kids were stone dead! Ifeoma herself rushed into the living room in trepidation. She was transfixed with morbid shock when she saw her kids on the floor, completely dead, and the apple beside them.
She wailed in pains: “God, I killed my own children! What have I done? I killed my own children!” she cried and confessed to the people around.
Funke was overwhelmed with surprise. She opened her mouth in utter disbelief and sighed continuously. When the tragic news reached Obinna in Kirikiri prison, he shook his head many times and cried like a baby. It was a shocking sight as his friends couldn’t believe it.
The following day, she was arrested for murder after the police did a thorough investigation and charged her to court.
However, an investigation was carried out to know the exact cause of the children’s death. She confessed to masterminding everything in order to inherit her husband’s wealth alone. At the court, she stunned the bespectacled elderly judge and those present by her confessions which made the elderly judge deliver his judgment without mincing word.
“Ifeoma, you are worse than a snake,” the judge said. “You murdered your loving children because of mere jealousy, suspicion and greed to reap where you didn’t sow! You will spend the rest of your life behind bars with hard labour at the dreaded Kirikiri Prison of Lagos State.”
At the mention of the sentence, she broke down in tears and wept sorrowfully. She shook her head pitifully and gnashed her teeth regretfully. She was sweating and talking to herself, with her legs and arms shaking giddily. A smart NTA television reporter moved closer to her to ask her some few questions but she turned down his request with these words: “If I had known where my evil plot was headed, I wouldn’t have dared it. That was a big mistake.”
The Kirikiri prison condition was so harsh and intolerable that she nearly gave up the ghost in the first month of her jail term; but she learnt to cope against all the odds.
Chapter twenty
Ifeoma had spent three months in prison; it was very early in the morning and still dark when her former husband woke up to happiness shaking himself roughly. He jerked fully awake at a thought. He had met and “toasted” a young lady and surprisingly she agreed to his request. He thought he must enjoy life even without his wife and money. He had given up all hope of getting his wife back, who was now languishing in a dreaded prison. He had fallen head over heels when the angelic young girl smiled back and said: “I love you too!” Those magic words stole his heart.
He had been dreaming of the day he would win her heart. He had no iota of a doubt in his mind that she was his “Juliet” and ‘Miss right’. In his estimation, she was the most perfect “Lagos babe” in town who came from a well-to-do and respectable family. He wouldn’t want to date girls from a poor or poverty-stricken background because of the heap of problems on their heads. He had gone into the relationship hoping to benefit financially from the “goodness” of a rich girl in the deception called love.
He had a date to keep. His dream the previous night was all about Rose and it was a sweet and fantastic dream. She had agreed to visit him for their outing. Sincerely, she was like an angel. She had the look and physique of a beauty queen. Her eyes were starry and tempting. She was light-skinned, tall charming and really gorgeous. Her teeth were as white as snow. Her boobs were orange shaped and full.
But Mr. Peter was a mere labourer now. Life appeared to have taken everything from him ever since he drove away his wife. He had none of the qualities that would make a lady swoon at his feet in love. He felt really surprised at how easily he got her, although he knew that she made a good choice. He was not even a handsome guy by any standard but he had an eye for beauty. Even Ifeoma, his former wife was a rare beauty despite the poverty that was fierce as a famished wolf. Actually, no one could resist the enchanting curves and voluptuous sight of Rose.
They had agreed to meet at a spot very close to his house. She was ten minutes early. The time was 2pm when she called on phone and pronto, Mr. Peter was on his way to join her. Everyone in the compound was impressed to see him in such a “youthful look”. He told them that he was going for a job interview.
“Hi Rose,” he said, “I’m really happy to see you. I never knew you could make it!”
“This is me and not my ghost,” she said snobbishly. “Now, where do you think you can entertain me?”
“Hey dear,” he replied being surprised because he had expected her to take him out and spoil him a bit.
“Let’s go to a local ‘Mama put Joint, I know one very close from here. I’ll give you a treat there. We could eat Amala, eba or Isi-ewu, and their foods are not always expensive. We could even eat rice at affordable prices.”
“Nonsense, rubbish, balderdash, insult,” she sighed in annoyance and continued:
“What kind of ‘Lagos babe’ do you think I am? Me go to a local food joint to eat? You must be out of your mind! Gibberish! I’m from a rich home and a sophisticated lady. I don’t eat such a terrible local food or poisonous concoctions! I’m a high class babe and I don’t come cheap. If you are interested in this affair, it’s you taking me to any popular eatery of international standard or I kick you out! Is that right?” she spoke in obvious disappointment.
For some minutes, he was lost for words. He knew he had bitten more than he could swallow. He remembered Mma and her troubles. Big girls, big headache, he thought. Actually he was broke. The company he was working for had not paid him for four months which made him turn into a labourer. He was perplexed, sweating and confused. What kind of situation is this? He asked himself. He knew there and then that he must act fast lest this “babe’’ would think he wasn’t man enough to date her.
He had only a thousand naira with him which he had borrowed from his bosom friend, Akpos. He reasoned that the money could neither take care of the bills of a popular eatery nor be enough to take him to work the following day. The Buhari economic crunch or the global economic meltdown had actually melted his little pocket. But no matter how, he felt he must give her a nice treat even if it involved incurring more debts. “Such a classy and high profile lady should not be embarrassed”, he thought. “Such are the traits and character of silver spoon girls who are children of millionaires!” he reasoned.
“I’m so sorry Rose,” he said apologetically. “Do you mind if I take you to Bright Fast Food International, very close to the Airport? They serve continental dishes that could sweeten your palate.”
“Now you’re talking,” she replied feeling really excited. “You know such fine and beautiful places and you are talking like a dunce. There are others like Mr. Bigs, Zweet Zensation, Finger Licky…These are the kind of places I go to eat and enjoy myself. I don’t patronize or enter local food joints to eat such poisonous things as you mentioned earlier. Now, let’s go to that fine eatery you know very close to the Airport.”
“Let’s go,” he said getting jittery, anxious and unsteady. A few minutes later, they were at the Popular Bright Fast food International. Really, it was a very beautiful and sophisticated environment. The eatery was paradise on earth and very comfortable. The waiter came to them, gave them the menu list as they sat down admiring the wonderful serenity of the place. He only demanded for a bottle of malt drink because he knew how lean his pocket was. Rose was more than happy when she got her menu list. Her eyes glowed with indescribable joy as she salivated over the continental dishes listed on the menu. Her palate and appetite were instantly filled with greed.
“Er…er…, I need roasted chicken and potatoes,” she said smacking her lips. “Spanish Bugger, hmmm…Italian salad, hot dog, ice cream, American doughnut and these two delicacies with names I can’t pronounce properly…and lest I forget, this bottle of wine made in France…”
Within a minute, their table was filled with all that she demanded. She began to munch the foreign dishes she requested for in a jiffy. He watched with unmitigated surprise and awe as she devoured her meal with relish and excitement. Despite the fully air-conditioned atmosphere, he was sweating and gasping for breath. He was really restless like a rat caught red handed munching its way through a loaf of bread. He sighed and sighed and continued sweating. She didn’t notice his impatience and troubled mind as she continued salivating over her meal. She was actually delighted and happy. Then something happened a few minutes later that caused panic and embarrassment to the dashing old lover boy.
She suddenly clutched at her stomach during her gluttonous adventure and said: “Yeeh, good gracious, my stomach is rumbling!”
“What’s the problem?” He asked, wondering why his date stopped eating abruptly. Before he could say another word, she opened her mouth and vomited the whole content of her stomach. It was a really irritating, disgusting and embarrassing sight. The whole floor was littered with her vomit, containing garri, groundnut, hard roasted plantain, local popcorn and the hard leather skin of a cow.
She felt a great relief but was really ashamed. Mr. Peter was so embarrassed and squeamish. He wondered at the sickening sight of her vomit showing the entire local and poverty-stricken food she had denied ever tasting. It dawned on him that she was a pretender of the highest order and a great liar. He knew there and then that it was all a ruse and that she wasn’t from a wealthy home as she claimed. He had never been so ashamed in his entire life. Rose herself was sweating and making all efforts to compose herself against the prying eyes of people at the highly expensive eatery. To her, it was one embarrassment too many. The cleaners at the eatery were busy cleaning and mopping the dirty floor when Mr. Peter excused them with an intention to visit the gents. Before one could say “Jack Robinson”, he had vanished out of sight by taking another exit route.
She sat alone on the chair for some minutes, under the watchful eyes of the security men and the waiters. When twenty minutes elapsed and Mr. Peter didn’t show up, she was given the bill to pay, totalling the sum of thirty-two thousand naira. She gasped for breath, sighed and sweated continuously as she was apprehended and held to pay for the exorbitant bill of the menu. At a point, she tried to escape but the cleaner and eagle-eyed waiters spotted her, so she was detained instantly. She begged them to allow her go, and get the money. The marketing manager intervened after much plea and her shoe, wristwatch and necklace were taken so that she would find a means of settling the huge bill. She was even made to write an undertaking in the presence of a police officer, regarding settling the huge bills, before she was allowed to go. She would never forget the day in a hurry. She had just learnt a new lesson that not all men are dunces as she thought.
Chapter twenty-one
A week after the embarrassing date with Rose, Mr. Peter paid a visit to his bosom friend who had been in the news lately as the latest millionaire in town.