Frank still in shock after witnessing bombs been planted on the pillars beneath the third mainland bridge, He was still shivering in his boat, the highness in his body was quick to leave him, his heart in his mouth as he witnessed the scariest hours of his life.
The guys never came back to where he was which was strange, he only looked up when he couldn’t hear the sound of their speed-boats any more.
Frank walked through the deserted shore to his home with the daylight approaching. He knocked and his mother opened the door for him. He went into the room, saw his father sleeping, took his corner and slept off.
The noise was unbearable for Frank, the wailing of the children, the adults screaming, the movement getting busier and busier, he was in the middle of the madness that seemed outdoor, the sun was shining directly into his face, his mind was playing tricks on him, people were holding onto the iron beams, trying to save their kids, their friends as explosions rocked the bridge in the middle with cars falling into the water and BRT buses with people jumping out of the windows as the buses nose-dive into the bridge. Cars were running into each other as cars behind who saw the explosions tried to turn back.
Frank woke up as the sun rays tore past the flimsy material they used as a curtain, disturbing him. The sound of little children getting prepared for school as they rushed down the passage of the “Face-me-I-face-you” house.
The sounds of explosion he heard were nothing but the knocks on his door from an impatient guest. Frank stood up as he used his hand to shield his face from the rays of the sun coming through his window. The noises he thought were that of people wailing on the bridge was that of people screaming at each other at the passage of the dilapidated house.
Still dressed in the attire he wore the night before, Frank sat straight on the worn-out mattress, the whole event of last night playing in his head, from his fight with his father to how he took the boat into the water, smoked a blunt and how the big boats approached the pillars underneath the bridge.
To him, it was purely a case of being at wrong place at the wrong time. He knew he had no business been there at that time but there was no way he could get that out of his head. He remembered also seeing an abandoned vehicle on the bridge that night but it didn’t look like there was anyone in the car. The impatient person at the door continued to knock aggressively, Frank got up angrily wondering who was there that could be so annoying.
__
BK knew calling Seye would lead to other complicated things but he couldn’t resist the urge not to tell someone about what he saw last night especially his security operative brother. Since the revelation of Seye, BK hardly believed anything anymore unless he
saw beyond reasonable doubt about such thing.
Just as BK suspected, Seye told him to come straight to his house that he needed to explain everything he saw. The phone call to Seye didn’t last long but the last sentence was for BK to head to Seye’s house immediately at Surulere. BK wanted to go but just needed to relax a bit before heading out again, since it was already morning. He managed for a little over 4 hours only to be awoken by loud knocks on his door.
”Shit!”, he said, as he remembered he was supposed to see Seye at home.
His guess was right as he peeped Seye from the keyhole.
“Seye, I swear to you, I just wanted to take a quick nap for about 15 minutes before coming over”, BK explained
“The 15 minutes became 4 hours, right?” Seye replied as he continued searching all BK’s apartment.
“I slept off, Seye…believe me” BK pleaded.
“Get your shoes and let’s go” Seye replied
BK pulled out his shoes from underneath the sofa where he kept it before he lapsed into the mini-coma.
“Where are we going?” BK asked
“We’re going back to the HQ, we need to debrief you” Seye replied
“Debrief?” BK asked
“We need you to tell us everything you saw last night as it happened, everything you can remember about that incident” Seye explained
“We have a team under the bridge right now, we have confirmed your intel. There is indeed something under that bridge, C4 assembled with a trigger and some firewall of some sort. Our bomb experts are trying to defuse the bomb but we need to know what you saw last night” Seye continued
BK took a deep breath; it looked like it was happening.
“So, how about people on the bridge?” BK asked
“The bridge has been sealed off since you gave me that intel, we moved swiftly, blocking them at all entry and exit points.” Seye replied
They went in Seye’s car and zoomed off. BK stared out of the window at the busy Lagos that wasnt aware of the eminent threat of a bomb on the third mainland bridge.
_____
Nnamdi stared blankly at the tattered roof of the warehouse, staring into oblivion, he couldn’t understand how he became a villain after being celebrated as an hero.
He monitored the arming of the bombs on 3rd mainland bridge which was set to explode in a few hours. After serving his father land dutifully for over a decade, he was to become the most wanted man in the country just as soon as he made a call. He also prayed silently that whoever was in that boat that night report it to the appropriate authorities in time.
He felt lost and deeply sad as he stared at the phone, his action, a dial away. The phone vibrated and it was a text;
“Honour our agreement and make the call, Its too late to play hero”.
Nnamdi stood up from his seat, trying to psych himself up to make the call that would probably end his career and eventually his life but he was far gone to back down now.
Nnamdi dialled the number from the encrypted phone, Nnamdi knew nothing is really encrypted, it’ll just take a couple of hours to crack where the call was made from depending on the technology in use.
The phone began to ring, and then the receiver picked the call;
The receiver looked at the phone, saw the number was hidden and probably thought it was one of his girlfriends playing prank with him but the voice he heard changed his mind.
“Hello, good morning” The receiver said
“Good morning, Mr. Commissioner, I don’t need to introduce myself, I just have some information to give you, it’s free but I would like a little compensation for it, that’s all” Nnamdi said
“Is this some sort of joke?” The Commissioner asked
“Does it sound funny to you? Now listen and listen good. There are bombs strapped to the pillars of the 3rd mainland bridge at the middle, we’ve done our calculations correctly and we’ve got the right amount of C4 to take out each and we have put them in multiple places.
We might not be able to take out the entire bridge but we have enough fire-power to break it in the middle which actually is what we want.” Nnamdi said
A sweat broke from the forehead of the Commissioner.
“We know you’ll try all sort of funny business with the bomb, whatever you try, we’re in control” Nnamdi continued.
“What do you want?” The commissioner asked
“Dont worry, I’ll call back with our request.” Nnamdi said
The phone line went dead.
__
Meanwhile, Frank went to get the door and it was his bestfriend, Akeem. Akeem was furious at Frank for not opening the day earlier complaining of how he had to wait for him to open up.
“Oh boy, na wa for you o, i don dey knock there for more than 30 minutes”
Akeem vexed
“No vex, Akoko, na sleep jare” Frank apologized
“I see your mama, she talk say you and your papa get gbege” Akeem said
“No mind that man jare, the man slap me since i too tey to come back home and say na bad company i dey keep” Frank told his friend
“Your papa sabi para sha ” Akeem joked
“No mind am, as him wooze me slap; na him I take that one escape go bridge go drag” Frank responded
“So, na you carry the weed wey remain abi” Akeem joked
“Na me o, I need am die” Frank responded
“Omo, you no go believe wetin i see last night o” Frank said to his slender framed friend, Akeem
“Wetin happen, yan me” Akeem said as he settled into the rickety foam Frank slept on
“I see some guys under the bridge, i no fit even reach there, i no fit turn back sef, no be small thing. All the guys dey wear something to cover their faces but the thing wey dem put for the bridge be like bomb sha” Frank said
“how you take know say na bomb, what if na Julius Berger nko? Sebi dem dey repair the bridge” Akeem responded
“Julius Berger go dey wear mask for face, you be monkey jo, enough American films to know those things were dey explode jare” Frank said
“You tell your mama or papa when you reach house?” Akeem asked
“Dem dey talk that kin thing” Frank said
“Those guys bin see you at all? ” Akeem asked
“Dem no see me but one boat nearly reach me but e turn back” Frank explained
“Listen well o, you go come pack small load, na your papa and mama head dey your back na him no allow dem come kill you for there.” Akeem said
Frank listened attentively.
“You go come pack small shirts and trouser, you dey go trip be that” Akeem said
“For wetin na?” Frank queried
“If them catch you, whether na Police or those guys, na die be that” Akeem said
“Oya now now, begin dey pack, we go dey talk for phone” Akeem continued
“You don dey tey, come dey go” Akeem rushed Frank
“Wetin i go tell my mama and papa?” Frank asked
“You go call them say work dey for Berger and you don go, say you go call
them” Akeem adviced.
Looking through his wristwatch, it was 15 minutes after 3pm.
__
At the foot of the bridge, bomb experts, Police, The Navy, The Army and every other form of National Security agency was present trying to battle out how best to resolve this.
Someone from the army suggested
“The detonation of this bomb has to be remotely, we’ve got everywhere around here surrounded, I don’t think anyone will want to be around to detonate this. It will be done via a mobile phone; there are receivers on some of them.”
A naval officer suggested
“We need to call Telecom guys if they can switch off their radio devices around this area so we can isolate this bomb and defuse it”
“Good idea” Abu, the head of the teams said
“Call NCC and have them do that immediately.”
The green light came that network was out, the bomb experts got to work, studying the wiring of the detonator, carefully analysing how to disarm the bomb and detach the C4 from the triggering device. After agonizing several hours, one bomb expert was able to successfully disarm the bomb, the process was replicated for other bombs.
The operation to detonate the bomb had withdrawn virtually half of the police force from Obalende area of the Lagos Island.
A call was put through to the commissioner of Police that the bomb has been disarmed and sent to the Force Headquarters in Lagos.
Meanwhile BK and Seye had gotten back to JTF HQ in Lagos, BK was kept in a room with just a table and a seat chained into the ground, almost close to interrogation rooms he had seen in the movies.
After an agonizing couple of hours, Seye came back with 2 other guys and they took their seats infront of him.
One of the guys broke the silence and said;
“My name is Idris, On behalf of all Lagosians, I’d like to thank you, Bukunmi for coming forward with this very vital information. You’ve helped us a great deal. We have got agents as we speak at the foot of the bridge accessing the bomb and hopefully we will be able to disarm it before it causes any damage” Idris said
BK was feeling proud of himself for a bit there, thinking this might be easier than he thought.
“We would like you to take us through the events of that night, one step at a time, how you got to where you saw the whole event unfold” Idris said
BK adjusted in his seat and began
“I was clubbing with friends on the mainland when they moved base to the island” BK said
The second guy interjected him and asked Bukunmi
“Who are the they” The second agent, Lawrence asked
“Hmmm, Jide, his chic and two of my own female friends. We initially were clubbing on the mainland at Club Rumourz in Ikeja. Jide and his chic changed locations without informing me, they called and told me they’d moved to the Island.
I abandoned my friends since they met their friends there and left for the Island, I noticed that my front tyre, driver’s side was deflated but not completely flat.
I made a mental note to pump it in the morning then zoomed off to the island, on my way to the island, I fell into a large pothole that destroyed my tyre.
I stopped the car, somewhere after Unilag and went to check the tyre, it was almost flat,as I moved to check the boot for my spare tyre. I saw a horde of speed boats speeding towards the bridge, they must have been 10-15 boats.”
Idris interjected him “Can you be specific?”
“It was in the middle of the night, I dint have the liberty of counting how many they were plus I was scared out of my mind, the boats couldn’t have been more than 15.” Bukunmi replied
“Ok” Idris said
“Wait! Wait!! ” Bukunmi said, brightening up like a light bulb.
“What is it?” Seye said
“There was a fishing boat that night” BK said, sitting up, resting his elbow on the table
“How are you sure there was anyone in that boat?” Idris inquired
“I think I saw someone hiding inside the boat” BK replied
“Can you describe what the person looked like” Lawrence cut in
“I can’t, it was too dark but there wasn’t any other boat that night, I remember” BK replied
“We need to send someone down there immediately to find out who was out there at that time of the night” Idris said to Lawrence and Seye.
“What else did you see Bukunmi?” Seye asked
“I couldn’t see much, I tried running to the other side of the bridge to see what they were doing but I couldn’t see very well. I could only see a boat a bit far from the pillars, some kind of leader, he is tall, huge, he had a mask on, his boat went around overseeing the operation” BK narrated
“The best bet is that guy down there, he must have seen the whole thing play out” BK concluded.
“What time did all this happen?” Idris asked
“Not so sure, but i think it’s between 2 and 2:30 in the morning” Bukunmi replied
Lawrence checked his time and it was almost 4pm.
“Get a team down to Ilaje now, find out whoever that was in that boat last night. Bring him in ASAP”
__
Nnamdi was still in a sad state when the private call came in
“Hello Nnamdi, any update for me?” The voice asked
“I have called the commissioner, am sure all security agencies are there as we speak” Nnamdi replied
“How come it’s not on the news? ” The voice asked,
“Are they putting me on a back burner? ” The voice continued
“The government is saying it’s the maintenance work been done” Nnamdi said
“Dont worry, this will soon be over and you’ll be re-united with your
family” The voice said
“Phase II is already is progress” The voice said
“What’s Phase II? ” Nnamdi asked
“You’re strictly on a need to know basis, this is all you’re allowed to know for now” The voice bellowed.
“They should be dis-arming the bomb right about now…” The voice continued
“Disarming??? What did I do all that for then? ” Nnamdi protested
“Patience Nnamdi …Patience …. ” The voice said and cut the phone
Phase II! disarming the bomb!! A lot of things were going on in Nnamdi’s head, something doesn’t feel right, he told himself.
__
Today is the last day of a powerful crusade at TBS, the Police and most of the security agencies on the island have been deployed to the waterway to monitor the disarming.
A lot of traffic on the Lagos Island as worshippers are trooping in for the last day revival, the man of God had promised it would be explosive, the blind would see, the cripple would walk, miracles were expected to take place. Some worshippers were in BRT buses singing to the destination of the crusade, some were walking in groups, in one of those group was Frank’s parents.
Amongst the crowd of worshippers were six men wearing suicide vest…
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