Japa (1)

  

Tobi looked back two more times and clutched his bag to his chest. He had been hearing footsteps behind him for some minutes now. 

"Aargh!" He screamed when a strong hand touched him on the back. His bag dropped from his grip into a small muddy pool in front of him. The water splashed onto his white sneakers and he covered his face with both hands.

A teenage boy in a dirty sports shirt smiled at him. The boy's smile faded as he watched Tobi freeze. A smirk appeared instead on the face of the boy who was to be later known as Kwame. Four boys of Kwame's age soon surrounded him. One pulled out a cigarette and lit it.

"Quench it, idiot!" Kwame barked at the guy with the cigarette and the boy did as he was told. One by one, the boys found things on which to sit, mostly abandoned bricks, while waiting for Tobi to come around.

"Don't kill me, please. I can link you up with my father, he will give you everything you want." Tobi said shakily in a British accent and the boys looked at one another, irritated but continued watching him with forced patience. Tobi then summoned the courage to pry apart the fingers that covered his eyes. Kwame saw the little action and smiled ruefully, showing a broken incisor that matched the ivory-imitation pendant on his neck.

"Come off it, my boti brother," Kwame said, trying to ease Tobi's mind. Tobi then raised both of his hands in the air to show surrender.

"Tobi Emiola," Kwame pronounced the name slowly. "You'll be going to Ghana and from there to London," Kwame said before looking up into Tobi's face.

"Your father must have told you that you're going to London, right?" 

Tobi nodded sheepishly. The other boys who had been itching to laugh for so long laughed hard at the pitiful 25-year-old nodding and their cracked voices reverberated in the environment.

"Governor's son," Kwame taunted in a low voice. "What state is the man governing?" Kwame asked his assistant, Psycho, who sat closest to him.

"Odogwu did not mention," Psycho replied calmly in a voice surprisingly different from others. He was the most intellectual of the gang and acted secretary-like.

"But Tobi, your only job was to stay where the driver dropped you. Why did you run away?"

Tobi shook his head vigorously instead of answering. The insecurity in the country was getting unbearable due to the elections.  His father had thought it wise to send his children out of the country, one at a time to avoid public sentiments. 

"You're quietly going to London," His father had said and it had sounded like music to his ears. The next time someone mentioned taking him somewhere quietly, he would make sure he probed before he assented. 

Some minutes ago, his father's driver had dropped him at an unknown place and had driven off as fast as lightning. Scared, he had stayed under the umbrella of a woman selling roadside rice and beans. But he had to leave when he started seeing men in dark suits hiding around the area. His experience of men in dark suits made him nauseous. Not once, but twice had he been kidnapped by people who had pretended to be part of his father's security. The first wasn't made public but the second did and the media did a good job of reporting it as the first. But then, a particular TV personality who was known for always running after the truth started digging around. So, if the guys in black suits weren't kidnappers, they could be from the media.

"You no suppose leave that place!" Kwame had stood on his feet and was now shouting at the top of his voice. "Psycho, bring the body!"

Psycho beckoned to Blade who dragged a heavy sack with dark-red bloodstains to the centre of the guys. For the first time, Tobi dropped his hands so he could check the contents of the sack. In it lay a man in a black suit whose neck had been slashed many times with a machete. The blood on his neck was still fresh and had only just started clotting.