WHAT GOES AROUND
"Hello is that Chief Ayedun's residence""Yes, you are talking to the one and only Chief Ayedun, the Otunba of Iroko land"
"Sir" the voice said "Your twins are now in our custody and for you to see them again you are to pay us the sum of one hundred million naira"
"En...what do you just say"
"You had me well sir"
"Hello...Hello"
Chief Ayedun was a foremost politician and a prominent member of the ruling Eat and Let's Eat Party (ELEP). He had served the party at various levels starting from the ward to the state. Having spent ten years in the annals of politics within the state, he knew how and where to get whatever he desired. He had recorded success for the party, within the state, at every election since the return of democracy in the country. Though not handsome with a little educational qualification, S.S.C.E to be precise, he remained a model within the party because of his political experience.
On his part, Taiwo Ayedun was not in support of his father's dealings. Though a member of the same party, he had a different mission. He wanted to use his father's influence to get to the top where he can change the story and put things right the way it should be. He was kidnapped, with his twin sister whom he went to pick at the airport, by a gang of four heavily armed boys in a black land-rover jeep.
After receiving the call, Chief Ayedun called the governor to inform him of what had happened, then his local government chairman, the commissioner of police, the national, state, LGA and ward chairman of his party, members of board of trustee (BOT) and all political leaders and elders of ELEP. Meetings after meetings were held, men of the state Security service (SSS) were asked to carry-out a thorough investigation while personnel from the army, navy, and police were summoned to carry-out the ultimate search for the Ayedun twins.
After a month of vigorous search with no result, Chief Ayedun finally agreed to pay the said sum but alas it was too late. Taiwo was killed and his body dumped on the road ten kilometers away from the Ayedun's mansion. That was Chief Ayedun's saddest day, the day he held the dead body of his only son in his arms. He had seen people died, his wife inclusive, but this was different. He had seen bloodshed at political rallies not his son's. He had seen people lost their child, now it is his turn. He exclaimed "O God Why me?" Without wasting time he arranged for the burial of Taiwo while the search for her twin sister continued.
Two days after the burial while the presidential envoy led by the minister of police affairs, Alhaji Musa Usman and the chief press secretary to the senate president, Dr. Kim Nwokolo, were at the family's residence to pay their condolence visit, Chief Ayedun received another call from the kidnappers. They commensurate with the family on the loss and they announce the new condition that must be met less Kehinde will killed. "We never wanted it this way" the voice said "but if we didn't do it that way you won't take us serious. You are now to pay the one hundred million within the next two weeks else Kehinde will join her brother in the grave."
With this new development, the president called a meeting of the Security Council after which he formed Operation Search (OS) a search team comprising of the police, the army, the navy and the thirty-six new graduates from the police college in America, England and Japan. These were sent to the thirty-six states of the federation with orders to send daily reports directly to the office of the president. Furthermore a team of police expert was brought in from South Africa to join in the search.
Two days to the expiration of the two weeks ultimatum, the president went on air for a nation-wide broadcast. He said "Fellow countrymen I am fully aware of the present fear of insecurity within our country but as I said during my campaign and on the day of my swearing-in, I shall leave no stone unturned in the fight against crime. Be rest assured that armed robbery, assassination, kidnapping and all other crimes will soon be a thing of the past. With your prayers and support, we shall succeed. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria." The next day there was heavy security in around the Ayedun residence while every vehicle moving in and out of Garden estate, the estate housing the Ayedun's compound, was thoroughly searched to avoid any movement of foreign material. The ultimatum day came and went with no clue of where Kehinde was or where her body may have been kept.
In their mercy, the kidnappers added another two weeks of grace for the money to be paid and to show that they are serious they sent pictures showing how Kehinde was been tortured to His father. This he showed to the relevant authorities. As fate will have it, before expiration of this new ultimatum, the kidnappers were rounded up at their hide-out right there at the Garden estate.
Without further delay, Kehinde was flown abroad for treatment while the criminals were arranged for trials. It was at the trial that several revelations were made. First they were the same hoodlums Chief Ayedun used during campaign and on the day of the gubernatorial election. Furthermore, they revealed how the silenced some political enemies and how they, with the help of some other friends, hijacked ballot boxes at various polling centres within the state. Finally they told the court that Chief Ayedun and his cohort failed to fulfill the promises they made to them so they decided to employ this strategy as a means of claiming what is theirs.
With all said and done, the court sentenced them to death and it ordered that Chief Ayedun should be tried for murder while the election tribunal should revisit the election petition against the Eat and Let's Eat Party in the state
Short story by Okuola Paul Abiola
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Written on 2011-03-31 at 13:46
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