CHAPTER 13
While men slept
AlhajiKosoko had finished his meeting with the PA party chairman and other party executives. The meeting had taken longer than he had anticipated for two reasons; firstly, he still had a difficult time convincing some members of the group that he could be a better option for the presidential candidacy and secondly, the larger percentage of the group could not take their eyes off his tall and ravishing secretary and concentrate fully on the matter at hand. Her presence had been so distracting for many of the men that he‘d had to excuse her and ask her to take the rest of the night off her schedule even though he’d really wanted to keep her around while he sorted out the Gbolabo and Agbabiaka issue. And thinking about Avery, he knew he was now watched by everybody and marrying her now was going to be an illogical decision if more people came to know her as his secretary yet that was what she wanted and the way she had spoken to him was definite. She spoke with a serious finality he could not ignore.
If that girl was going to cause him many problems, will it not be the best option to eliminate her? he thought.
He shuddered at the thought of the inherent possibility of wasting such beauty that he’d appreciated and loved for thirteen years but deep down he knew he was destined for this presidency and Avery was threatening to blackmail him. She had loved him for thirteen years and shared his bed and his dreams, even the seemingly impractical ones. His religion permitted him to marry her but he felt the time and circumstance was against him. The voice of the pilot cut through the still air of the private jet and interrupted his thoughts as he announced that the time was seventeen minutes past two a.m. on Sunday the seventeenth day of August two thousand and twenty five and the plane was now landing at the Ibadan airport.
Please fasten your seatbelts. He concluded.
Alhaji Kosoko didn’t want this meeting to last more than thirty minutes and the interview was going to be another thirty minutes and then he will finally have some time to sleep in the room he had booked at the newly completed Monte d’Ibadan Imperial Suites. An ambitious group of French businessmen had figured Ibadan could be made the capital of Yorubaland and had secured the prime spot at the top of Oke Ibadan, literally meaning Ibadan mountain, and built a fine string of hotels there calling it Monte Carlo in Ibadan, hence the name Monte d’Ibadan Imperial suites.
As Alhaji Kosoko made his way from the runway to the SUV waiting to convey him to the palace of the Olubadan, his mobile phone beeped and it was a message from the corbral. Baba Ondo had slumped in confinement and they needed orders to convey him out of the hideout immediately.
Do what you consider is best Alhaji shouted angrily into the device.
In a couple of minutes, the corbral called back saying he had disposed of the man’s body in a stream at Epe waterside lagoon. He also said he had received a tip from his boys monitoring Chief Gbolabo that the Chief had ordered his men to look for someone within the University of Ibadan.Alhaji Kosoko had simply ordered corbral and his men to get into Ibadan in the shortest time possible except one or two people to keep an eye on Chief Gbolabo while he was at his meeting with the Olubadan of Ibadan.
As the minutes ticked on, Chief Gbolabo waited for news on capture of Dr Agbabiaka but none was forth coming. As the minutes ran into hours, he got weary of the long night and slept off in the parlour of his Ikeja mansion. He trusted Major Badoo’s ability to carry through with this operation without leaving a lead. Meanwhile, Alhaji Kosoko had gone on to his meeting with the Olubadan and subsequently granted a brief interview to press officials from the pan-yoruba news group Alaroye. In his interview, he had once again declared his intention to run for the presidency of the Yoruba nation and the intention of the leading political party in the land, the PA to adopt him as their candidate. The chairman of the PA had lent his voice to the fact that the party had finally considered adopting Alhaji Kosoko as the party’s presidential flag bearer and Chief Gbolabo had twenty four hours to appear before the party executives and make a strong case for himself and prove he was still worthy of being chosen at the party’s primary election. All these news had fallen on Chief Gbolabo’s head when he woke up later at 6:45am to receive the early mails from his media assistants and campaign publicity secretary. It was now clear that the stars were lining up against him and within one night the table had turned completely against him. However, he still had more news to hear from Major Badoo and the early morning TV news crew. Something had happened in Ibadan while he slept.