Dirty Diamonds Of Boko Haram Part 1 (4 page)

Mohammed nodded. “We will look for the safe
very carefully, but the briefcase shouldn’t be hard to find”

“The men haven’t found it yet and they’ve
searched almost everywhere in this place by now. Aside from that
drawer full of worthless newspapers and a ridiculous one hundred
thousand naira, there has been nothing so far” the commander
gestured with the jeweled dagger across at a furniture chest of
drawers. The drawers were all pulled open. “That briefcase is
around here somewhere and possibly a lot of money as well. Our
brave brothers are desperately in need of weapons, vehicles and
food in their holy fight against the oppressors. We need the
money”

Mohammed nodded once. “We will find it”

He saluted, turned on his heels and
left.

The search took them many long hours that
stretched into frustrating days.

Eventually, the three lovely Shuwa Arab
girls, the surviving female servants of the house who had been
reserved for the new beds of the two senior commanders, were
tortured repeatedly for information. But they all kept saying the
same thing.

The steel briefcase did indeed exist. The
master had returned home with it as usual and had carried it
himself, straight into his special room like he always did. No one
ever went into that special room. It was forbidden to all except
the first wife. She alone and not the servants were responsible for
cleaning that room and she did that only when the master was around
because the iron door was always kept locked and the master alone
had the key.

The terrorists discovered quickly enough that
the
special
room
was actually a small fortress. They
had to use explosives to blow open the iron door and found a
good-sized windowless room that was furnished like a modern office,
complete with telephones and a desktop computer, all of it hooked
up to a mini communications satellite dish hidden on the roof of
the house. They discovered too that the white painted walls of the
room, the beautiful tiled floor and even the lovely ceiling were
actually solid concrete with steel bars laid deep in them

They searched and searched but never found
anything. There was no sign of a briefcase or any hidden safe
anywhere.

********

TWO MONTHS LATER

THE CITY OF EXCELENCE, LAGOS, SOUTHERN
NIGERIA.

It was just another Thursday evening.

Alex closed work for the day at exactly 5.30
pm, signed out and left the huge warehouse where he worked as a
foreman. He walked up Innoson street where the warehouse was
situated, turned onto the busy Johnson street and stopped to wait
for a commercial bike to pass by.

This was Apapa, one of the largest and
busiest business and warehousing districts of the sprawling, highly
populated city of Lagos. Thousands of people and vehicles were
always on the move on all the major roads her and during rush hour
periods like this, thing got really crazy. It was a time when
people who didn’t own cars of their own were really glad because
they had the alternative of a commercial motorcycle ride which
ensured they wouldn't get caught up in the terrible traffic
jams.

It took a several minutes but Alex finally
got a commercial motorcyclist to take him home. He lived in
Satellite Town or rather, the rapidly developing suburb behind
Satellite Town, Ijegun.

It was a twenty-minute fast ride and as
usual, he made the cyclist stop him at the G & N restaurant
which was only two streets away from where he lived.

The G & N restaurant was a classy little
place that served delicious local foods and cold drinks at a fair
price. Alex was a bachelor who lived alone, without a woman in his
life, and he didn’t like cooking at all so he took his meals at
restaurants, but only quiet ones like the G & N restaurant
which was never crowded, and its different sections granted he
always got a private table where no one bothered him. Alex was a
man who liked to keep completely to himself, this wasn’t so much a
result of his somewhat quiet nature as it was a result of his
special military trainings and the demons currently hunting
him.

After a quiet meal, Alex left the restaurant
and leisurely walked the short distance home. It was going to seven
o’clock now and the atmosphere was cool. The sun had set completely
and night was coming fast.

This was one of the nicer parts of Ijegun.
There were decent apartment buildings and private bungalows lining
the streets here and it wasn’t densely populated nor did the
streets didn’t get flooded once it rained either. Alex had moved
down to Lagos, to this area, only four months ago and so knew no
one. He was always carful to keep his distance from people and so
made no friends, not even with his neighbors.

As soon as Alex turned onto the quiet street
where his apartment building was his trained eyes noticed the big
Jeep at once. It was a glittering black Range Rover Jeep and in a
middle-class neighborhood where most people drove mid-range cars or
had none at all, the expensive Jeep looked very out of place.

The other reason why Alex noticed the Jeep so
fast was that it was parked directly across the street from his
apartment building.

There was still daylight enough but the Jeep
had black windows that made it impossible to see through into its
interior. As Alex drew closer, his sharp eyes picked out the two
men in dark business suits sitting quietly in the front seats of
the Jeep. He could barely make them out through the dim glass of
the windshield but they were certainly watching him. Alex couldn’t
see into the backseat of the jeep at all but any number of people
could be there watching him too.

Alex hated being secretly watched and, due to
his special training and very recent occupation, when such was
being done form a parked vehicle, it made him very uneasy.
Outwardly, he pretended to be calm and take no notice of the Jeep
as he walked on but all his senses and every muscle in his body was
already keyed and ready for trouble.

Alex walked right up to the gates of his
apartment building and went in without anything happening. He tried
to shrug off the deep sense of unease as he walked through the
deserted compound to the stairs, after all this was a big
neighborhood and the occupants of the Jeep could have come looking
for any of the several people living in the other apartments and
buildings.

But even that reasonable excuse didn’t sound
too convincing for his instincts.

This apartment building Alex lived in was a
decent one story affair containing eight separate two-bedroom
apartments, four upstairs and four down. Alex’s apartment was
upstairs and he took the stairs quickly, two at a time, up to his
front door. He fished out the keys quickly from his pocket, got the
metal Swiss door open and went in, locking it firmly again behind
him. Only then did he begin to calm down.

After a quick shower, Alex changed into a
pair of long shorts and T-shirt then settled down in his modest
living room to watch a football match on the large wall-mounted
45-inch flat screen TV.

He hadn’t been there for up to five minute
when the knock came at his front door.

Alex was instantly on his feet and at the
wall. He took down the big wall clock fast and got out the pistol
from its hollow interior through a wide hole in the back. He ran
soundlessly across the room on the balls of his feet to the door,
one look through the peephole and his fears were confirmed.

It was the occupants of the Range Rover Jeep
at his door!

The knock came again.

There were two of them but only one was in a
black business suit and he was the one knocking firmly on the door.
There was no sign of a third party anywhere which meant that the
driver of the Jeep was probably still sitting in behind the wheels
of the vehicle out on the street. The man in the suit was of
average build, definitely in his thirties and looked more like he
belonged behind an office desk rather than behind a gun. He didn’t
look dangerous at all, definitely not a bodyguard which was odd
because the other man with him was a middle-aged man who clearly
looked very wealthy and important, the kind that simply didn’t go
anywhere in this country without at least two or more people to
provide proper protection.

He must have been sitting in the back seat of
the Range Rover where he hadn’t been able to see into, thought
Alex. The man was a well-fed, thickset man of average height with a
big pot-belly that couldn’t be hidden even by the voluminous white
Agbada
he wore. The rich white material of the
Agbada
, the matching decorative hat and shiny white shoes
coupled with the man’s authoritative, even arrogant, bearing spoke
clearly of someone well used to wealth and power, a lot of both.
The man could have easily passed for a powerful politician form
Abuja or a very wealthy northerner.

Yes, thought Alex as he eye-balled the man
carefully, he was definitely one of either if not both.

Alex looked the two men over very carefully
through the special lens of the peephole which captured all angles
and detail well enough. He sensed no danger this time so he put the
gun away in the small of his back and got the door open on the
safety chain. He looked through the narrow opening at the two
men

“May I help you?” he asked.

“Yes indeed, you may, sir” said the man in
the suit in perfect British accented English, his manner very
businesslike. “You are Mr. Alexander Chike Okoye, ex-Lieutenant of
the Nigerian Army commandos, are you not?”

Alex instantly became apprehensive. Strangers
appearing at his door with knowledge of his full name and military
identity wasn’t a good at all. He eye-balled the men again, smelt
the money and decided to play along.

“Yeah, what’s the problem?” he replied

Mr. Suit smiled politely. “There isn’t one,
sir, at least not on your part. We are here because we have a
certain problem of our own for which we would like to solicit your
expert advice and assistance” the smile broadened and he gestured
at the door. “If you would just let us in for a few minutes, we
would explain things further. My name is Basil Audu and this…” he
gestured respectfully at the fat man who stood slightly back,
watching quietly. “…this is my boss, Alhaji Mustapha Usman, CEO,
Goldfield Holding Nigeria limited”

The name of the men didn’t ring any bells in
Alex’s brain but that of the company sounded distantly familiar. He
quickly wondered where he had heard it before.

“I have abandoned important business in Abuja
to come all the way here just to see you personally, Mr. Okoye, my
circumstance is that desperate” the Alhaji adjusted the huge
sleeves of his voluminous white
Agbada
as he spoke, lifted
them onto his shoulders in a flamboyant manner. He too spoke very
perfect English with a slight British accent. “I have a most
unusual offer to make you and if you will just let us in for a few
minutes so we can sit down and talk things over properly, you could
find yourself making a lot of money in a matter of days”

Alex stared at him a moment then made up his
mind. He got the door off the safety chain and opened it wide,
stood back and waved them in.

“Come in” he said.

“Thank you, Mr. Okoye” said the Alhaji and
walked through followed by his assistant.

Alex pushed the door closed, locked it
quickly by depressing the button on the knob before e following the
men into the living-room. He waved them at the leather sofas.

“Please be seated”

“Thank you” said Mr. Suit politely and they
both sat down. The fat Alhaji and his voluminous Agbada overflowed
the big armchair he sat in while his assistant sat down on the
sofa.

Alex picked up the remote control form the
low coffee table in the middle of the room and turned off the
television, then went over to sit in another armchair, facing the
two men across the room

“Firstly” began Alex carefully. “I want to
know how is it you people come to know of me and exactly where to
find me?”

The fat man sat comfortably relaxed in the
armchair with his arms on the broad armrest, his hands made a vague
gesture. “I am a very wealthy and resourceful man with a lot of
powerful connections in this country both political and military”
he said simply, matter-of-factly. “There is hardly anything I want
that I can’t get with a phone call or a personal visit. money
always buys the rest. I approached two different parties at the
highest levels in the Army to recommend probable solutions to my
present predicament and your name came up on both occasions. I now
possess a copy of your military file which contains every
information about you from the day you joined the army to the day
you left, and then provided a forwarding address which is here. I
also possess the full records of the case and trial that led to
your being booted out of the Army and in it you will find the
identities, reports and testimonies of everyone involved, what was
said and what was done in all the high level, closed door sessions
and meetings you were not allowed to attend. If you accept my offer
and accomplish the tasks required, all these documents will be
yours as well as a great deal of money”

Alex stared at him and felt anger well up
within him. He had never ever seen his personal file before, not
while severing in the military or after being kicked out. No
solider could ever accomplish such a thing as take a peek into his
own personal file because such a file was classified well above
him, accessible only to one’s commanding officer and above. It was
where they entered the reports that made or unmade your career. For
a civilian to be in possession of such a file at all, classified
military property, was highly illegal and almost impossible, more
so in his case as an officer who had worked for the Military
Intelligence Agency. The civilian would need to have at least a
one-star general kind of connection because not even paying someone
high up in the Army personnel department a lot of money to steal it
was an opinion, such a file simply did not exist.