GOD OR MAN: WHO'S TO BLAME- cocosista15.blogspot.com

Oil thieves are not exempted from the snares of kidnappers, but what happened to Deji wasn’t kidnapping. It was more of, what’s that word again? “Prophesy!” Any fool knew that his house was a fortress alright, but something happened on this fateful Sunday as he came back from church. The beautiful and heavily pregnant Bola who was expecting child number two, was by his side. It happened so quick he actually thought he was dreaming. The 12-seater commercial bus in front of him looked rickety just like any other bus, nothing out of the ordinary. He honked the horn of his bullet proof Ford Explorer gently but the bus driver wouldn’t budge. He suspected nothing, after all it was 9am on Sunday in the oil city. Everyone was either going to church or coming back from church. The bus driver still didn’t move and others behind Deji were blaring their horns in that tiny accursed one way road.

Deji came out, rushed to the bus driver and before he could rain down the barrage of insults he had so beautifully composed in his head, the driver had pulled out an assault rifle. The other six passengers in the bus came out with high caliber firearms but all hell didn’t break loose. They simply walked Deji back to his car, took Odewale and drove off. No words exchanged, no ransom notes, no nothing. They just took the boy away from his mother’s arms and off they went. The last thing Chief Deji remembered was the blare of the horns in his ears - it sounded like background sound to the lyrics.

The heir is gone, the heir is gone.

He went to church and never came back

Oh mama the heir is gone, the heir is gone

The search was one of the most publicized in the history of kidnapped persons in Nigeria. In a normal kidnapping case, there would have been demands for ransom, proof of life, drop off point and all the normal ingredients of classic kidnappings. Well this was a special case as it didn’t follow the norm. There was no ransom note, no proof of life and no drop off point either. There were no words from the kidnappers - just an emptiness that filled the life of both parents. The police investigation was vicious. Vivian was arrested as the prime suspect, jailed and later released with no smile on her face. Lady karma and all the gods of revenge were having a feast, and the heir to the throne was gone forever.
Things went on normally in the Akanji family. The world did not end but Deji’s life ended soon enough. Even before he was pronounced dead by the doctors, he had stopped living. The heart break of losing his son was too much for the crime czar to comprehend. A year after the kidnapping, Deji died. Bola was left with her newly born daughter oblivious of the secret battle going on in the family for the invisible throne. With the help of Deji’s second cousins who had always been sidelined by Deji’s brothers in the family affairs, she gathered support and claimed the throne promising Deji’s cousin a better sharing formula.

One thing everyone admitted was Bola’s instinct for business deals. She turned the family’s fortune and made their operations almost legal. They branched out into other ventures like hotels, shopping malls, car shops, even their oil business now looked legit as they had chains of petrol stations around the country and three tank farms. With their numerous connections to the uppermost crust of the society, patronage was not a problem in their business. The whole family were soon swimming in more money than they could even record. They were no more known as oil thieves but well respected entrepreneurs in the industrial strata of Nigeria. 

Bola never remarried, but she was a well-known cougar in the small southern town of Warri. She never did, partly because if she remarried she would have to submit the throne to her husband the new king and partly because she could have any young man in the society she wanted. Yes did I forget to mention she was young, filthy rich and sexy successful.  

TO BE CONTINUED.