Chance or Destiny...Part 3 continues......

I had no plans to raise my head ,so i just grunted and nodded vigourously.

'dem don collect you'..the voice asked me
i nodded again.....

I did not trust myself to speak ,i could hardly swallow my spit,my mouth was very dry.

'as dem don collect u,i no fit help you again o,Engineer remember to thank them ........the voice said again

'no whala bros,i go thank them well well' .........i managed to answer.....

The whole show lasted for another 10 mins and it seemed like eternity as we laid on the concrete ground,the guys let out some rounds of gun shots and shouted some codes to each other.I raised my head a bit and saw them all get into their SUV's ,then all of sudden i saw a Hiace bus......i did not notice that before.From my mental calculation they were too many to fit into 2 SUV''s so it was logical that they also brought a bus.

They got into their vehicles and zoomed off........

For the next 10 mins we were still lying there,nobody dared to move.

'Dem don go?''..........everybody was asking everybody....nobody had a definite answer.

One by one everyone started getting up...

'Ha ,won ti pa oooooooooo'....someone shouted that they have killed the young man..

Everybody started running helter skelter and some people gathered round to carry the boy into a car and proceeded to drive out of the station.

From what i saw the boy was as dead as a door knob,it will only take a miracle,only a miracle......
'Omo,Jojo make we vamoose before police come o'....Wale Dog broke in..

My adrenaline kick started,Wale Dog was absolutely right,the police would come and start arresting every dick and harry.
'Omo,na true o,make we kawai o'.......i replied

I got into Dexter and signaled to Wale Dog,i turned quickly and moved out of the station ,got to the nearest bank used my ATM and proceeded to the same station that Mummy Nurse i had initially directed me to.
i got back on the queue and then i started ruminating about all that happened.

Wait a minute..........that voice.....why did i not piece it together....
'haaaaa....Omo ale ni Wahedi sha'.......that voice was Wahedi's...............that bastard!!!!!!!

Chance or Destiny ...Part 3 continues.....

I did not have to be told...

'Kilosele,Jojo?...se boy yen lo shoot?' ....Wale dog rebooted my brain with his question...asking if it was the boy that was shot.

'O da be e o'..i replied that it seems so

'Ha....ori iya mi o'....Wale dog exclaimed.

Expect if the boy was wearing a bullet proof vest which i strongly doubt,and of course if i was wrong with the type of gun used ,there was only one out come.

I crawled quickly deeper under a 504 Peugeot car,did not want to hear any story of stray bullets.Wale dog was already laid flat under his own car,no more conversation from him i bet.

'if una no value una life make i see una head up' ...one of the robbers shouted in thick ibo accent....

Well at this moment,nobody wanted to find out ,everywhere was dead silent,we could only hear the movements of the guys as they continued their operation.

Am sure Wale dog would be thinking of how very lucky he was ,it is  always a thin line between sanity and Aro,also sure that if his bladder was full that day he would have peed on himself.

Again,i heard foot steps coming my way,i hugged the ground as if i wanted to enter it,large droplets of sweat was dripping down my forehead,i started to pray.

'Lord ,pls not this way,you promised me that even though i walk through the valley of the shadow of death,you shall be with me,Lord this is a station of death,baba be with me o in Jesus name....Amen'

I heard one of the robbers asking his partner.

'Ta lo ni moto yi'.....he was asking for the owner of a particular car.
'O wu lo lie down si abe moto yen'...the second guy answered that the owner is under the a car.

For a minute,i did not know that he was refering to me but when the footsteps started coming nearer,my heart pumping increased by 100,i hugged the floor more.The guy tapped my legs like a signal for me to crawl out,i slowly turned with my head still facing the ground and crawled out.


'Engineer omo aye.....ma wo oke o'.........dont look up

Chance or Destiny...Part 3 continues...

The man that said 'na overskill kill Monkey' he know wetin him dey talk o because till today i still find it hard to put a finger on what would have been going on in the young man's head.

First i thought probably his adrenaline kicked in late and he chose to ignore logic,then again he must one of those kind of people that watch movies a lot and ultimately disconnect with reality,thirdly he made me believe that really ,witches and wizards can follow someone all the way from the village.
We were all laid down flat while the armed robbers were carrying out their operation,the young convoy driver was lying close to me,at least i could hear him breathing hard,some nights when i lay on my bed i blame myself that i should have noticed his arms twitching and probably deduce he would do something that stupid.
Its either he was born stupid or he had stupidness thrusted on him....

I was still thinking how lucky Wale dog was,all of a sudden this young guy got up and started running ,trying to cross the express and make his way into Magodo phase one.Initially i was frozen,i could not comprehend what was happening and i had to force my brain to process the event.Before i could react ,he was off like Usain Bolt.

'Stoppppppppppp!'..one of the robbers yelled

i raised up my head a bit and saw him run out of my view

'kilon wrong pelu boy yi'...Wale dog...whispered nervously  to me.....meaning what is wrong with this boy.

'haa, o su mi o'.....i replied that i had no clue....

I trembled to think what would happen to him if he got caught,these guys were armed to the teeth ,what was the use of running ,it was not as if you had billions of naira in your car or that you were being targeted,it was obvious that the robbers came to rob the filling station ,we were just unlucky to get caught in between,i mean............

I heard 2 loud gunshots and from my little expreince with guns,the sound was not an Ak-47 and instantly i knew it was a double barrel shotgun ,no doubt.

I heard a loud yell......

and i went blank...............

Chance or Destiny...Part 3 ..Continues...

It had to be a joke or i was dreaming....the lady selling fuel at the pump dropped the nozzle and took off.

Wale dog tried to take off after her ,a guy from nowhere shouted.

'Everybody lie downnnnnnnnnnnnnn!

I spun around to ascertain what was happening ,guess what?

You remember that guy i asked if a pump was fast that he answered me 'owapa'..well he held a double barrel shotgun pointed at my chest.
'Lie down ,i say!'..........he growled at me
I did not need to be told twice,i spread on the floor as if i was in boarding house when your senior tells  you to lie down.

I heard several gunshots but i dare not raise up my head,i heard a guy screaming and a lot of running feet,i moved my head a bit to the side and i could see several men with different kinds of guns ,going through the station.I was quick to grasp that they came in 2 black SUV's and from the look of things they meant business.
Apparently ,they had already positioned themselves in the station as if they wanted to buy fuel,so it was easy for them to round up everybody ,including the guys that queued outside the station.

'wey your money?....the dude asked me

'inside the car ,inside the car'..i replied with my head still down......He ordered me to turn  around and he searched my pockets ,removed my wrist watch and my phones all the while pointing the gun at my chest.
'If u move i will waste you'
'I wont move sir'
From the corner of my eye ,i saw him go to Wale Dog and asked him where he parked,Wale pointed at his car.The guy asked some couple of questions that i did not grab but i overheard Wale saying...
'Am sorry sir,very sorry sir,forgive me ,i did not know that money was there'
the guy said 'if i shoot you now dem go say i be bad person,no be you dey lie so?'
'Am so sorry sir,na fear make me forget'...Wale replied

I nearly laughed out loud,Wale was trying to play smart with one of the armed robbers,dangerous game to play o,never argue with a gun goes a saying.........

Chance or Destiny...Part 3 Continues...

'Basket mouth wan open mouth again o!' my Fela music was blasting from Dexter's sound system
i knew i wont spend up to an hour before i got fuel,so i was very relaxed.
Suddenly ,there was a knock on my window,i moved my head to see who it was
'Jojo ,o fumble o!..came a familiar voice

'haaaaa,Wale dog,kilonsele'..it was my friend Wale dog..

we call him that because he sells dogs for a living ,he imports all kinds of breeds and sells to individuals and corporate security agencies.I had promised to patronise him some while back that was why he was shouting that i fumbled...lol

'i come dey wait for your call now'...Wale said.

'No vex ,eyan mi,na hustle,how business now,you don get boerboel dogs now?

'I dey expect by the end of the month,between and 4 and 6 months by age,if u want ,u go need to deposit o,u know say all my dogs dey get international passport'

'Kai,your mouth too sweet Wale dog'

we continued gisting and one of the young guys that were driving the convoy of new cars also joined the conversation and the queue was slowly crawling.

'you dont even come play ball again for field '..wale asked me

'i get injury ,jare,all those your boys wey still get ambition to play for super eagles at 35 yrs wan break my leg'..i replied

'hahhahahahh.omo oole'

'Na so'

'Anyway sha,we go get match on............' Wale stopped in midst sentence and his eyes got enlarged like an okpolo.His body language spoke to me in 50 different languages and it had the same meaning.

I was backing the expressway while Wale was facing the express,i saw the change of expression in his face and i knew instantly that i was in the wrong place at the wrong time..........

Chance or Destiny...Part 3 Continues...

If you  are destined  to get fault ,no matter where you travel to or how much you run ,you go get that fault by fire by force.

Thats only how i can describe what happened to me that fateful Sunday morning,after Mummy Nurse described where i could get fuel and i got there the queue was quite long and so in my mental laboratory i cooked up  a sharp way out of this by thinking that if i drive to the express,the fuel queue there wont be this long because most of the people coming from church would probably be on this very queue.

So as a sharp guy ,i moved out of the queue and drove towards the express,got to berger swerved my way out of the traffic and exited at the express way facing towards secretariat.

I got to the Conoil but there were not selling so i moved on to the next station which was a Total station by the way .

Bingo!!! i was absolutely right,spot on! the queue was very very managable,quickly i moved into line behind some convoys of new cars being transported,tear nylon cars and the drivers were all jostling to get fuel.I remembered guessing where they were headed and i promptly concluded they must be driving all the way to the Northern part of Nigeria because i heard some of them speaking hausa.

Under 20 mins i had already gained access into the station,good enough the station had like ten functional pumps and i only have to decide which of the pumps is faster and line up there.

I  located one sharply ,i manouvered my way towards this particular pump.You know how you have a lot of people in the fuel station during fuel scarcity.

Area boys were there hustling to get fuel to buy so that they can re sell it to prospective customers that were not patient enough .People with jerry cans trying to get fuel for their generator sets.In this midst of all this cacophony there was orderly chaos,everybody knew what everybody wanted and the pump operators were having a field day, making good money by the side.

I reversed and saw one slim looking dude hanging around the pump and  i asked him.

'Alaye,se pump yi fast?' ...asking him if the pump was faster

'Owapa'...he answered...that it was fast.

Nice one,i lined up Dexter behind the next car and increased the Fela song i was listening too..............

Chance or Destiny......Part 3..starting

Throughout the duration of the site build,i had a good relationship with Olongbo and i made sure i was far off from Salewa beacause i was still shaken by what Wahedi did the other day and how they nearly killed the boy because of me.Few days later i was on site, Olongbo knew i was around and he came with his 'entourage' after gisting for a while  he asked me  if i  was taking good care of Salewa

'Engineer omo aye,mi  expect ki Sade complain o,so that kile gun yin bi mi ti promise.jor o!....Olongbo said....meanig he was expecting Salewa to complain about me so he can carry out his threat of stabbing me.

'Salewa,wa ok,baba'..i lied..telling him that Salewa was ok..i did not have the courage to tell him that i was not dating Salewa

I quickly changed the subject to avoid suspicion from him.

'Baba,ibo no Wahedi wa,mi kin ri mo'...i asked him about Wahedi's whereabout because i dont see him any longer with the gang since he was discharged

Olongbo answered ......'Ha omo ale yen?mi ti disband e'..meaning he has been disbanded and no longer part of the gang.

'kilo tun se?....i asked him what offence did he commit again.

'gbewiri lo mo yen sha,emi o de fe ole ni around me'.....meaning Wahedi have started stealing and he does not want  him around him

'ehn ehn,o ga o'...i answered in a surprising way.

'Engineer omo aye,e fin yen le,ebami ran Ahmed ni i gbo'....olongbo wanted me to send Ahmed to buy more igbo for him

Fast forward to some months after ,there was sacrcity of petrol and i was at home contemplating on where and how to get fuel on a Sunday morning when my neighbour knocked on my door.

'Mummy Nurse,good morning ma,how was church?...i asked her respectfully.

'Fine jare ,just to inform you that i got fuel to buy at Oando,opposite Solid Rock church,just in case you need to get fuel ,the queue is a bit long but its moving'

I thanked her profusely  and got into Dexter on my way to another experience...............

Chance or Destiny..Part 2 Concluding.....

I was able to get treatment for Wahedi at the clinic where the nurses asked me if he was a thief or how come he was beaten like this....
If i could see the future i would have answered in the affirmative but i could nt so i just told the nurses that he was involved in a street fight and he was my brother.

I stayed there for a while till Wahedi opened his eyes.

'Ha Engineer omo aye,mi ti fuck up,Olongbo ma kpa mi' ...Wahedi started crying....saying he knows he is a dead man walking.

'Ma worry mi ti ba Olongbo soro,wo ni fi owo kan mo'..i assured him that i have pleaded with Olongbo and i was sure they wont touch him again.

'haaaa,ese Engineer omo aye,e ma binu si mi o,mi like Salewa gan ni'...asking me for forgiveness.

'Ma worry Wahedi,o ma discharge ni sin'...told him to forget about it and he will soon be discharged.

Couple of hours later ,i gave Wahedi some money and entered Dexter, i was so tired from the activities of the day and all i wanted to do was smoke some B& H,take some bottles of stout with a bowl of Nkwobi and go straight to bed.I have had enough igbo smoke for the whole year.Salewa vanished from my mind straight,i dont want no trouble with any area boy o.

Little did i know that the kind gesture i extended to Wahedi would save my life in the future.........

Chance or Destiny...Part 2 continued.....

well ,some bowls of garri and Sister Tope the nurse were able to calm me that day,my journey with cannabis shall be discussed in another symposium...lol

Wahedi was so high that he attacked me immediately,u know how police people grab your trousers when you are a suspect?Wahedi grabbed my trousers,pushed me against Dexter (my car) and attemped to clear my legs from under (ifase or kafa).
Unfortunately for Wahedi,Olongbo and the rest of his boys were also exiting the site at the same time.

'wahediiiii,o ya weere ni' ....Pako shouted from afar ,drawing the attention of the rest of the crew towards where i was struggling with Wahedi

Olongbo must have processed it in his mind that Wahedi is about to spoil a good
deal for him so naturally his instinct would be to protect his investment.

'eyin eru iku,Wahedi ti ya weere o,e bo ooo'..olongbo instructed his boys to lynch Wahedi.

All this while Wahedi was not even aware people were running towards him,all he wanted to do was hurt me and because he was very high,i was able to grab his hands while we were struggling.

By the time Wahedi realised he was in deep shit and the igbo clear small for him eye ,it was too late.

Gbossaaaaaaa!

Picture when u have a lot of ants on a cube of sugar,that was exactly what happened to Wahedi.it was only Wahedi's shout of help i was hearing.

'Engineer,e ma worry,igbo yen ma da loju e ni sin' Olongbo was assuring me that Wahedi will soon become sober.

The way they were beating Wahedi,i had a serious fear they might wound him or even kill him,so i started pleading with Olongbo to forgive him.

'haaaaaa Engineer ,e ti ni oju anu ju jor' ...Olngbo was upset with me that i was always too quick to beg on someone's behalf.

I was actaully calculating on how not to have crisis on my site so Olongbo wouldnt understand my sentiments.

Anyways ,i was able to persuade them to leave Wahedi alone,he was already bleeding,his lips was cut into pieces and he could hardly walk.
I pulled Pako aside and asked him where the nearest clinic was,he was reluctant to tell me but after giving him 'cola',he gave me directions.
I bundled Wahedi into Dexter and drove him there..................

Chance or Destiny..Part 2 continued.....

i turned around
'Engineer omo aye ,mi like owo ti e gbe yen o' saying he did not like my actions
'ahn ahn wahedi,kilo gbe yen wa?' ..i asked him what the issue was?
'elle mi ni omo Salewa yen o' wahedi replied...meaning salewa is his girl
'Bawo ni yen wa se kan mi?'..i harassed him telling him that it was none of business

ok.... i should n't have said that...why? the guy was high on paraga and igbo

I remembered the first time i tasted igbo,i was sitting under a shed with 3 of my boys back then in school,and one of them gave me a joint to light up for them (set up).I took the joint and lit it up,i quickly dragged like a toke(for my mind,se na the igbo be dis,,mshewwwww),i took another drag and another drag.

'ehn ,give me my smoke jor' my friend collected it from me

5 mins after,i felt a tingling feeling from my head to my toes and i noticed that any time they say a joke, i laugh loudest and hardest.
Apparently ,they noticed this and kept on whining me.
Then two voices started speaking to me,one was saying i can run very well,the second was saying i should not run that people will think it is the igbo that is working
All of a sudden i jumped down from where i sat, and challenged all the guys that i could run faster than them,they looked at each other and of course they all understood what was happening.

one of them said 'its a lie jor,oya on ur marks'

in my igbo infested brain i did not notice that i was the only one doing on your marks.

'get ready!' he shouted

i got ready.

'Go!!!'.......................................

Chance or Destiny..Part 2 continued.....

'huh' came out of my mouth
'You are suprised i speak good english'
'Not really'..i lied...'In fact ,very impeccable'..i thought to myself
'Well am a student and its my Mum business actually but i help her out when ever am on hols,basically handle most of her literate customers'
'oh i see,thats nice'....i finally found my voice.

Then i took a second look at her.

I noticed that she did not bring the agbo on her head like the typical alagbos,she brought it in a small travelling bag and she had a nice tank top ,light make up..not bad looking at all..well...structures.

As a guy,my brain started doing somersault....agbo plus fine girl equals to....

'Engineer ,igbo ti tan o,e fun Ahmed lowo' Olongbo broke into my thoughts..wanting me to give Ahmed more money for igbo.
i gave Ahmed N1000, just to shine in front of Salewa...lol

'ti won ba bi iya e da,ki w a fa nbe,international call ni pako ma se' Olongbo was threatening Ahmed not to smoke any or else Pako will make an international dail.

I ended up spending another 2 hours on site ,had some more couple of drinks,gisted with salewa ,exchanged numbers and for my mind ,everything was rosy.

Little did i know that i was not the only male that had 'eyes'. Apparently one of Olongbo's hench men had been toasting Salewa for a while and she was not co-operating i later learnt.
You know when a guy dey tell boys that one chick na him babe and na only himself know and the babe no even know say she get boyfriend.......ehn, na that kain tin

Anyways after some time Salewa left and i gisted with Olongbo for a while and he kept o threatening me.
'Olohun.Engineer,omo mefa ni Sade ma bi fun yin o,to ba complain,ma make sure pe mi gun yin ni idi' ..meaning Sade would have 6 kids for me and if i disappoint her he would stab me on my bum bum.
'haba,koto iyen now'
'Olohun,ma gun yin o' '..he kept on saying
'omo to Slangba ni Sade now'
'ok ,o'

I concluded my business,gave some instructions to John and bade everyone good bye,i came out of the site turned towards sweet sensation towards my car,as i was opening the door to get in.
Some one tapped me on the shoulder.
'Engineer...' said a deep voice..........

Chance or Destiny----Part 2 continued....

Ok....pause....Walahi ta swear..i did not plan for what happened next

if u have been following the story ,you would naturally have an idea of how Sade Alagbo would look like...well,i also fall into that fallacy category expect of course we were all wrong.
If there was a beauty pageant for most beautiful omo alagbo in Nigeria,am sure Sade would win.
so you can imagine my reaction when she stepped into my site.

'anipe,omo elle ni aburo mi se,Engineer ti e ba fe ,olohun mi le gun yin ni igo ni ona 19 times but e ni ku o,ma kan fi bayi wi.' ...Olongbo must have read my reaction,cos he immediately threatened me that if i don't befriend his sister he would stab me like 19 times and still make sure i would be alive as a lesson.

Anyways,olongbo introduced us

'Engineer ,e toju aburo mi gan ni o,sade ta opa eyin,ati monkey tail oni N20 funmi'

I had no choice than to play along......i said hello and she answered me

'hi,hello am sure you are embarrassed already,don't mind my brother,he is a naughty egbon,he is actually my step brother,they call me sade at home but you can call me Salewa'

My mouth was left open.................

Chance or Destiny....Part 2 continued.....

its only in movies i see what i saw that day....

if i saw it anywhere else i would say Pako used juju to hit Ahmed. Pako dialed the number ,Ahmed tried to swerve it caught him ,then Pako now redialed it back,omo Ahmed kissed the canvas o.
For my mind i said to myself ,if i dont stop this igbajus,these guys go kill person for this site o.
'ha baba ,e sanu,koni se be mo' i pleaded on Ahmed behalf...pls forgive him,he wont do it again

'Engineer,bo se mase niyen,eni to ba de pa iro o ma jale' replied Olongbo.....thats what they do,anybody that lies must surely steal..

'Pako!free e be e be e,Engineer ti ba be e be' he commanded Pako to leave him alone that i have pleade for him.

Olongbo now called me to one side and we started discussing on how MTN would sort them as per cash ,he made me realise that he was also the head of the OPC people in that area and he wa going to gaurantee us total security on the site as well.
After about an hour discussion,everything seemed to have been settled and sealed and from the look of things he seemed Olongbo was very happy with the whole arrangement beacuse of what he said to me next.

'Ha Engineer ,inu mi dun gan o,mi de ma jo yin loju'...am so happy and i will surprise you also.

'kosi wahala baba'

'infat,idi iboni!! wamb!!, lo si ile iwe ko lo kpe Sade Alagbo wa'.........idi ibon (gun butt) go and call me Sade that sells concotion.

'mi wa alright baba,mii need agbo'..i told him that i did not need concotion and i was ok.

'Gbabe osi ,eyin le ma fe aburo mi Sade Alagbo,omo dada ni o,mi fun yin'....he was offering me Sade to befriend.

'Ha kotoyen '..i tried to dodge.

'Engineer , mi kpa lase ni' he pressed on.....meaning its an order

20 mins later....

Sade Alagbo arrived..............

Chance or Destiny...Part 2 continued.....

Human brain is a wonderful instument of matter.

Acording to some school of thoughts that the left brain and the right brain are connected by nerves am sure my own brain have a fuse attached to it because as soon as olongbo gave the command,i felt something blow for my brain and am sure its the fuse.Under microseconds ,my brain did some calcualtions that if i allow pako to dial my number and it enters voice mail,he might decide to re-dial or send a text and if am not careful he will send an e-mail and patapata,if he sweet am e fit come go NIPOST.

i just remember Abu the Soja slogan 'all die na die''

I jumped up immediately before Pako could swing his arm which missed me by a couple of inches.

i faced olongbo and said 'Baba e fin yele o ,owo ni gbogbo wa wa o,e maje ko di ere iyepe ki gbogbo wa ma lo lose o,taba co-operate gbobgbo wa ma jeun lo o'....meaning lets be reasonable here so we all dont lose money to be made.

meanwhile because Pako missed the first dial,i guess he was mad so he quickly asked olongbo.

'ha ,o wo voice mail,baba se kin dun dial'.....should i re-dial,it went into voice mail?

Olongbo answered 'te pause weere,file fun! omo aye ni,ati la lohun!..meaning we have succeeded in making him talk ,leave him.

Just then 'omo ale' Ahmed entered with the carton of beer and nylon of 'koko'

Olongbo asked sharply 'ta lon se party?'....who is celebrating?

That was a cue for me to step up bravely to start the peace talk as i noticed that all their eyes was on the drinks.

'baba,emi ni mi ra wa ki afi step down ko ma da bi mi pe mi te oju yin mole'......meaning i dont mean any disrespect that is why i bought this for all to enjoy

All the boys behind Olongbo just started shouting joyously!!

i breathed a sigh of relieve......base 1

for the first time Olongbo smiled 'mi so fun yin kpe omo aye,ogbon ijapa ni Engineer yi ni o,..He now turned to his boys 'e cool down e ma rush e,lati eni lo Engineer omo aye ni oruko e'

'Guinness,English ati Obama go bring Engineer tools now now' Olongbo commanded three of his boys.

Why was he called English? i later learnt he was the first person to bring an original onyibo pistol to the group while 'Obama' used to be the president of their prison cell for Kirikiri so he was given the name of the US president.

He turned to Ahmed 'Oya Ahmed ,gbe igbo owo yen wa,igbo elelo lo ran Engineer?
....asking me how much igbo i sent Ahmed

'oni N500 ' i answered.

Olongbo started counting the wraps

'ahhhhhhh, omo ale ni Ahmed yi o,igbo yi o kpe,o ti fan nibe' Olongbo shouted....meaning Ahmed had smoked out of the stuff and it was not complete.

He turned to me 'Engineer ,ejo a ma dasi o' ......which meant i should not interfere.

'Pako,jor bami dial numba omo ale yi'.....meaning Ahmed is about to recieve the 'Holy Spirit'.............................................

Chance or Destiny...Part 2 continued.....

'itumo?who be Mr?'
'e mabinu sir' i replied ...dont be annoyed sir
for my mind i was wondering why i told Ahmed to enter the site after 15 mins ,i should have told him 30 secs because the 15 mins will look like 4 hrs now.
'as u dey rake for phone ,i be think say u go be one Rambo,na why i carry all my boys come na,i no come see any muscle ' he hissed

Where is this stupid Ahmed now?

'sorry sir!' i said again

'Ogbeni ,losho if baba dey follow u talk' one of his boys shouted at me...meaning i should crouch as i was being addresed.This guy was as black as death ,i later found out they call him 'Guinness' because he was as dark as Guinness stout.

Before he finished the order ,i had already obeyed.

Where the fuck is this Ahmed boy?

A liitle fight broke out amongst them for like 10 secs,did not know what they were arguing about but i guessed one of them saw my wrist watch and was planning to obtain it and another disagreed.
So i was crouched down there together with John and the rest of my site workers,i looked thru the corner of my eye and i could see Baba Muda the iron bender sweating like someone that had Ebola virus.Am pretty sure he would have pissed on himself.

Where is Ahmed for God's sake?

After the rancour,Olongbo called them to order and sent half of them out of the site back to their base am sure by now he had decided he could handle me with few of his boys.

God pls direct Ahmed's steps to this site now!

Suddenly it hit me,....gbam!.....Ahmed sef na ganja smoker,he must have decided to quickly take some tokes before bringing the rest i paid for.Quickly my prayers changed.

God pls dont let Ahmed be too high to forget what i sent him o.

Then i raised up my hands like i was in the primary school seeking the teacher's attention

'Olongbo my chairman,ko le to gbogbo eleyi o,shakara yen o de inu o'i tried to cajole....meaning they should take it easy that i was only bluffing.

Olongbo Answered 'kpe o lon shakara lansa yen,Pako dial numba e' turning to Pako to carry out the dialling (dirty slap)..........

Chance or destiny--Part 2 continued.....

'All die na die!' that was always Abu the Soja slogan.At a time i used to think that as soon as Abu's mother gave birth to him,he was handed a gun and given the go ahead to go into the world and kill.He was a soldier at the bonny camp and i think the guy gets bored easily and eases himself by using his gun.There was a particular time i used him to sort some site issues out and i ended up paying him more than the area boys sef begging him not to kill anyody for my neck o.
So naturally my preference shifted to Lekan Navy....as soon as i got home i put a call to Lekan,his phone did not go through,actually switched off then i remembered he told me he would be going on official assignment to Niger delta.
Now i was stuck! i had no choice than to go and face these so called 'omo onile' the next day.
The following morning,my phone had started ringing by 7.30am,John had manged to go to site because i spoke to him the night before and pleaded with him ,my 'eye 'was still on completing the site on schedule.
'oga,dem dey here dem dey wait for you o,make i tell them say u still dey come?' john asked me.
'ehn now!' i barked through the phone to sound very brave .
'ok sir'
'but when am close i will park at that sweet sensation,once i flash you send Ahmed to me sharply'
'no wahala sir'
i grinned to myself,a plan was forming in my head.

I waited for Ahmed at sweet sensation and and as soon he got there,i dragged him to the nearest beer parlour and spoke to the woman in charge.
'madam ,u get very cold beer?'
'i get o'
'ok put down a carton for me' i oredred her
'ok sir'
i turned to Ahmed,and instructed him to give me 15mins,after 15 mins he should enter the site with the carton of beer and i also gave him N500 to buy wraps of 'koko'(indian hemp).
i brough out my pack of B & H ,lit one and dragged on it slowly
i took a deep breath and entered the site ..........ghenghen!!!!
i saw like 20 hard looking guys with different instruments

John na babanla Judas iscariot!

i was still trying to adjust myself
'Ehn ehn ,engineer don come' John fingered me out straight.
As soon as they saw me they all burst out laughing.................
'na u be the Engineer?'' asked a burly looking guy ,wearing a fishnet singlet and a Kangol cap with one small 'claro' in his fingers.
i slowly nodded
They started laughing again.
'this one na aje butter now!!!!!!...............shouted their Oga
i remained silent.
''omo aiye,se o ti gbo eni to je olongbo ri?..he asked if i have ever heard of a person by the name of cat.
i shook my head.
'ok now,emi ni olongbo,ti eyin re ko kin kan ile'..he replied..........meaning am the one they call the Cat that the back never touches the ground.
Foolishly.....i said .
'How are you Mr olongbo?'.................................

Chance or Destiny..Part 2 continued.....

Fail to plan means you plan to fail as the saying goes so as someone ready for a task i felt i had planned enough.

The following week i moved my team to site to start excavation,the vendor i was using had an engineer on site who reports directly to me so everything was on motion.Because the site was enclosed we had worked for 4 days undisturbed ,i checked my schedule tracker,we were on point ad i had even started sending progress report to the office feeling like one James Bond.

Trouble started on the 5th day,apparently the area boys did not quickly figure out what was happening in the compound until they saw a truck load of granite and sand enter the premises,immediately they began networking and of course GSM really helped matters.I had left john the engineer on site that day since it was getting to like 5pm infact in my mind i had called it a day,i was already dreaming of sitting in that beer parlour beside my house and cooling down with a bottle of odeku as reward for a good day's job.Driving to 7up former toll gate,my phone rang,John was calling me,i thought he had forgotten to give me a particular update so i picked the call.

'Hello ,engineer there are some people here that want to speak to you o'
'Who?' i asked
'them say dem be omo onile o'
'how many dem be'
'Oga mi ,dem be battalion o!,
'battalion ke?give their Oga the phone'
John passed the phone to their oga.

The minute he collected the phone he just started threatening me,swearing and shouting telling me that there is no way we can succeed on the site that infact for deceiving them we will pay through our nose and that as a matter of fact they have seized the working tools and they will make sure they discipline John before they leave the site.

All these cacophony through my phone was spoken in yoruba.Being a sharp man now so that i will not carry last, i also shouted back at him,made some hollow threats then cut the phone.
After like 5 mins my phone rang again,it was John.
'hello John ,wetin hapun again now' i asked him
'oga wetin u tell these people now,dem don de beat me since o'
'waattttt?'
'blood dey all my head o,dem break bottle for my head'
'ehn,bottle ke?.i shouted........i talk.for my mind ,i don die,e be like say i don march line o
'ok,go treat yourself.i go show 2mro,kpele,shey u hear'
i dropped the call before Road safety go nab me.

Now,as a Lagos boy,i have some armed forces boys that i usually hang out with that i have even used some of them on my sites, so i was debating with myself.
should i call Lekan Navy or Abu the Soja?..................

Chance or Destiny-Part 2...Starting

'Talawon?' i replied ,meaning who are you
'haaaaaaaa,gbogbo eyan lomo odo,enimelo lodo mo' he shouted meaning 'everyone visits the river but the river do not know everyone that visits.
'ehn salaye'i sounded off tough,telling him to explain.
'haaaa u no remember me,me Abbas Pako the only Chief commander to olongbo(cat) for Ketu tipper garage for ile epo' all the while he was saying this he was punching me playfully.
as soon as he mentioned olongbo,i immediately recognised him.

'Awon omo aiye! olongbo nko? i asked him about olongbo.
'haa baba eyin ologbo ti kan ile o' meaning the cat's back has finally touched the ground
'kilosele?hw e take happun? i asked
''awon eru iku lo da si laya o baba' saying he was shot in the chest by some miscreants.
'haaa,into my heart niyen o,how eru iku come kill Oga OPC now' i asked.
'baba ko ye wa o!' meaning we don't understand.

Flash back some couples of years ago MTN wanted to build a communication mast at Ketu tipper garage,just very close to sweet sensation and MTN had some serious doubt about completing the project because of the volatility of the area.I was asked by my Oyibo MD if i could deliver the project,i told him it will be difficult but doable so far he is prepared to support me financially.He said no problem.
I got to the office the next day ,opened my Microsoft project ,drew up my schedule gave a buffer of 2 weeks for community issues ,allocated resources to all my activities,talked to Moses at the accounts for my mobilisation,called my guy omorose to get his team ready for the PHCN Installation,everything was on track.
For my mind ,i was ready................

Chance or Destiny ---Part 1 Concluding......

why was i more scared about area boys? well because they were very unpredictable at least i knew the LASTMA people will tow my car but i could not predict what an area boy would do,stab me,rob me,help me or freaking scare the shit out of me.So here was i under iyana oworonshoki bridge stuck with Spikey in the evening rush traffic,Saheed was far away,Lastma was on my case infact they had phoned the tow vehicle and it was on the way (N25,000),area boys were eye balling me i was low on cash ,i had a bursted radiator,i was drenched in my own sweat,my brain had frozen.
'Oga oya lets push this car for that side so the towing vehicle can have chance' that broke through my reverie. i did not even try to plead with them because i knew it was hopeless so i obeyed like a zombie.As soon as Spikey was pushed to the slow lane,the LASTMA officer said i should wait for their oga because he would be the one to give the final go ahead for the towing.
Right then i was doing a mental calculation of the little change i had left in my account,i wished i had not given up smoking ,i would just had lit up a cigarette sharply.I checked my rear view mirror again ,i saw the LASTMA officers walking back to their pick up,probably to radio their oga,then i noticed two barrel chested fellows coming towards my car,sharply my adrenaline kicked in ,i removed my wristwatch,my neck chain quickly and hid them with my phone under my seat.
'Alaye kilo hapun?'came the guttural voice,meaning what is the issue?
'omo moto mi breakdown ni o' i replied meaning i have a breakdown.
'Ogbeni 50 thasaaaand lowo e o!' meaning ur money is N50,000
'Haaaaaaaa N50 thousand bawo?' meaning N50K like how,for not doing anything?
'we go follow Lastma talk make dem no tow ya car'
All this while it was getting dark and i did not make out the faces of the guys very well but at least they have given me an asking price it was now left to me to negotiate.I have always thougt myself to be one tough dude,so i just decided to speak their 'language' so i could get a fair deal.As i stepped out of the car to face them ,one of the area boys just shouted.
'Enginerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr......omo aye , na u?'..................

Chance or Destiny..Part 1-Continued

at this juncture ,i knew i had it,no way of me escaping this quagmire, i quickly took my phone and dialled Saheed's number knowing it was futile because Saheed my mechanic's workshop is in Ogba Ikeja and i was stuck at iyana oworo but i just had to make somme effort at least to show the approaching LASTMA officers that i was doing something.By this time my shirt was soaked in sweat the new Polo by Ralph Short sleeve shirt now looked like a body hug vest.
'Saheed! Saheed! i shouted through the phone.Saheed and i grew up together way back in Ogba,while i was pursuing education ,Saheed went to join his father at his mechanic workshop.The little i knew about engines i learnt it from Saheed.
'kilonsele jojo' he asked meaning 'what happened'
told him about my situation,he burst out laughing for like 10 secs and said 'spikey don decide to drive u today be that o'.I told him to stop joking around and give me a clue about what to do,he asked if i have checked the timing belt.i answered in the affirmative.
'haa omi radiator ti tan niyen o,check e' meaning i should check the radiator for loss of water and truly i found i had a burst radiator and the car sensors shut off the engine to prevent burning the gasket.i relayed it to him and he advised i get another road side mechanic to fix it since i know what the issue was now that there is no way he could get to me on time because of the traffic.
I looke through my rear mirror and saw two LASTMA guys already beside my car.
'Oga wetin hapun,as ur car spoil for here u no fit wait here o,day de dark,u de cause go slow and soon area boys go show now?'
Damn!!! i had completely forgotten about area boys,i was more scared about the area boys than the LASTMA people............

Chance or Destiny-Part 1..starting

-Part 1

I had closed early from work this particular day and got stuck in a moving traffic on the 3rd mainland bridge,very close to oworonshoki,all of a sudden the engine of my car just went kaput.I was like God oh no not on this bridge and during rush hour,i turned the ignition again and the engine just gave a faint sound and went silent again.Trust lagos motorists,horns had started blasting behind me,swear words were floating through the air,i was covered with sweat.After like 10mins of trying to get 'Spikey ' to start ,i eventually gave up and i was forced to get out of the car,i looked around and i saw some boys selling Gala,i beckoned to them and the negotiations started,i needed them to push Spikey to the garage at Iyana Oworo so i can figure out what went wrong.

The gala sellers knew had no choice so the bill was higher than mountain everest,anyways we agreed on a ridiculous amount and Spikey was pushed by the end of the day by a single gala seller to the garage.Getting there i was able to get a mechanic to check it out and the usual clueless road mechanics suggested that we bridge the battery that it seemed the battery had drained out,i was too weak to argue or to tell the nincompoop that i just bought the battery.

Anyways he rented one and the car started again,i paid him off and moved away from the garage ,on getting to car wash bus stop the car halted again,now i was really in deep shit cos it was right in front of LASTMA officials and traffic has started to build up behind me...............