This is a vexation and it is unjust.
Sunday 24th March 2013 at exactly 9.pm was a bad time and must remain a bad moment. Not knowing what the fateful day had ushered in, at exactly 5.27pm on Monday with Easter coming at the weekends; I made calls to him, to inquiry if I might accompany him in his car for the Easter home journey as was the norm, but his two lines were switched off, I wondered, thought of calling the wife but decided otherwise since I didn’t have her number. One might wonder why I like traveling with him, the reason is simple. It offered me a one stop shop of getting to my father’s compound without inconveniences and most importantly provides me with extras for our several rounds of beer and peppered soup (Nkwongwo) at Okpofe with our home brethren in the evenings. I left the office still looking for an alternative arrangement.
What came to mind was that he had travelled ahead since he is building his country home and epileptic service at home might have made him unreachable.
On getting home by 8.pm, I received several calls from unknown numbers. I did not pick my phone because most often, it comes with requests that will throw you off balance. So, I refused to pick as if I had the premonition of the accompanying news. Almost the next minute my wife’s phone rang, she picked and passed it to me then I heard the bomb shell “He is dead, shot either by armed robbers, assassins or Hoodlums”.
I momentarily lost my composure and my mind trailed off. Why, where, what, when, how were the questions that filled my mind begging for answers. I returned the questions to my caller but he hadn’t the answers