THE BLOODSTAINED BRACELETS

CHAPTER 2

April 2010.

The red seat in the presidential palace of Nigeria in Asokoro , Abuja is a very comfortable chair made with the best leather and designed with an unalloyed attention to comfort , however president Alfred Justus Dikko didn't feel a bit of that comfort as he sat in that chair on that Monday morning .

The continuous murder of well placed Nigerians was disturbing him and eating up every available fabric of his mind , he had been at a mental tipping point like this before but that was before he got elected , when few days to the election some of those who had formed an alliance with him suddenly backed out to support his arch-rival , he still won anyway .

But now he wasn't sure he stood a chance In this new fight , crimes were not a new occurrence in Nigeria , Ritual killings , k********g and terrorism but almost all the time the people at the receiving end were poor helpless Nigerians, now it was the creme de la creme of society that was on the recieveing end, that part of society that was insulated from the sundry crimes of everyday Nigeria .

What made this tough was that each of the eight business moguls who had died in the past year were people he knew and had a personal relationship with , some stretching back to his earliest days in the corporate world while others he'd met as a presidential candidate of the then leading opposition party.

Eight of them had died in the space of nine months , almost at the rate of one person each month , he drummed his finger against the large oak table in front of him and picked up the telephone in his office .

" Is that the inspector general " , he asked in a tone that showed he wasn't interested in speaking to any orderly , "he'll be here in a minute, hold on sir", a trembling masculine voice said on the other end of the line , " morning sir " the inspector general intoned in a voice that bore the unmistakable accent of someone from the northern part of the country ," I need you in my office as soon as you can come here" the president said not bothering to return the pleasantries of the IGP .

Inspector Ibrahim Sarki was tall but not lanky , the type of man who would have been described as fat if not for his height , this was probably why he loved to refer to himself as a well-proportioned man whenever he was with his friends.

When the president's call came through he already knew what it was about , what he didn't expect was an urgent summon from him , he muttered a short prayer under his breath as he made his way towards the round office .

"Good morning sir " the inspector said , accompanying it with a salute but relaxing himself almost immediately since he knew the president wasn't in the mood to acknowledge such greetings , not when such a burning issue was at hand.

The president waved him into one of the empty chairs that directly faced him , while at the same time targeting him with a hailstorm of questions about the recent murders .

The IGP swallowed hard and rolled out his rehearsed answer , " we now have unmistakable proof that all the eight murders are connected and being perpetrated by the same person or group of people which is most likely " .

"Prior to now we've had each of the state units treat the issues seperately but now we have plans to create an harmonised team that would tackle the issue as one body of crime that it is" , he finished with a tone that showed that he had already said all he has to.

The president shifted uncomfortably in his chair and adjusted his glasses ," now you're telling me that there's no single arrest that has been made in any of the six affected states ? , and all you have till now is a plan , that's preposterous" you are not police chief to spend nine months in order to plan you're there to fight crime , the president blurted out in a voice filled with animosity.

The police chief explained that they've made some arrests the only problem being that none of all of those arrested is leading to any reasonable outcome , the president didn't seem interested in this new piece of information, he leaned over and told him he had only three weeks after which failure to apprehend the killers would lead to unpalatable consequences.

He could almost taste the contempt in the president's voice , it was thick enough to make him know that without any tangible results over the next three weeks something he didn't like would happen to him .

• • •

As his driver moved away from the three arms zone towards the sheu shagari way that led to the Police headquarters, Inspector Ibrahim paid very minimal attention to the road , his mind raced between the probable possibilities that could ensue if he failed to apprehend the people behind this killing before the end of the three week ultimatum.

He was definitely going to assemble a team like he promised the president , but would they be able to apprehend the killers ? , that was the Genesis of his worry , there was this strange expertise with which the bracelet squad executed their killings that made him worry if they could indeed be apprehended before the ultimatum runs out .

He thought about what would happen if he was forced into retirement , God forbid that happens it was almost worse than being sacked , although his retirement benefits would be intact and his name would go down in history as a former Inspector general of police he couldn't stomach the thought of exiting the force as a failure .

His stomach rumbled as he alighted from the car as it pulled into the parking lot reminding him that he had yet to have breakfast that day .

Back in his office , Geoffrey Godson his secretary, informed him that the Lagos State commissioner of police had called , he ordered him to return the call immediately, cutting the young man off in mid-sentence.

The commissioner's husky voice muttered a salute at the other end of the line but Inspector Ibrahim didn't bother replying before asking if he had done the assignment he gave him , he answered in the affirmative, " I suggest we let Ray Uchenna be the team lead in this case , remember he has a track record in things like this " , the IGP'S mind flashed back to some three years earlier when Ray had apprehended the white killer .

The white killer , so named because he tied the mouth of all his victims with a white handkerchief after executing them, was a serial killer who terrorised Lagos for more than six months , executing 14 people , all hookers within that space of time .

Ray had headed a team of 11 officers who were given the singular duty of apprehending the white blade , a feat he achieved in less than a week.

The Inspector general was comfortable with this choice , partly because he couldn't think of someone better for the role and partly because he had seen Raymond's intelligence at close quarters as he was the Deputy inspector general in charge of southwestern Nigeria then .

" I think that's a nice idea " Inspector Ibrahim said , his voice showing an animation that indicated interest , " I've also spoken to the director of state service and we're getting two of their best officers on this case " , "the EFCC has also being quite cooperative, they offered three of their best hands for this investigation" , I've also also cherrypicked some 5 other worthy police officers across Nigeria for this investigation, I hope you told ray that there's a briefing by 4pm here at the force headquarters tommorow?", the voice at the other end of the line , considerably more relaxed than before answered in the affirmative, "he's already on his way now sir '' , excellent the Inspector general exclaimed both as a commendation and a dismissal.

★ •

The eleven officers were already seated in the conference room at the force headquarters when the Inspector general came in, dressed in the sky blue uniform of the police his eyes sunken behind his plastic rimmed glasses , all the seated officers rose to salute he waved them back to their seats after he positioned himself well on his .

He looked at each of the officers starting from his right hand side his eyes scrutinising each of the officers as if hoping to see through their flesh and bone and directly into their minds , his gaze lingered more on Ray who was seated almost directly in front of him , after what felt like an hour he eventually moved on to other officers spending considerably less time staring now .

"I believe each and everyone of you have been briefed at your respective commands , this is a mission in which failure isn't an option , we have just three weeks on our hands , I don't think anyone would describe that as a lot of time ,yet a lot can be achieved within this timeframe , even if we can't put the killer or killers behind bars before then we should be very close to doing so , I have the finest cops here today and I feel we should be able to achieve that " , he said in a stonehard voice that showed a firm resolve and a deep conviction .

He swallowed hard , his Adam's apple bulging beneath his clean shaven jaw and continued , " the team lead is going to be Raymond Uche of the state criminal Investigation department Lagos ,Jackson Udeh , Aremu Ipinola and Phoebe Briggs of the EFCC would work on the financial details and dealings of all the victims since they are all businessmen , Faisal Indimi and Ephraim Mailafia of the DSS would be involved in intelligence gathering and related matters , while the five of you would work on investigating people and dealing with the different affected states to see if there's any help they can offer by way of their seperate investigations he said turning to the five police officers who sat together directly to his right .

" Cooperation is the only way you guys can achieve anything together and I believe you'll cooperate with one another , there's a dedicated office for your operations here in the force headquarters and I can assure you that you have the backing of every police command in this country , I've spoken to all the commissioners in the thirty six states of the federation and you can be assured of their support " , the commisioner paused and looked around the room perhaps to see if anyone had a contribution to what he had just said.

When no one said anything he continued , "your budget is directly under my supervision so don't hesitate to come to my office if you need anything" , with that he stood up and asked the team to follow him to the office dedicated to them.

The office was richly furnished , it was obvious that it was converted but from what ? , no one could really place it , was it a former boardroom , a conference Hall like the one they just left , none of the officers seemed to know .

The Inspector general showed them around the office and the adjoining room where they which was meant to house them for the duration of the operation .

When the IGP finally left , Raymond cleared his throat and invited everyone to a large table which looked both like a conference table and a dining table with eleven chairs arranged around it , I'm Raymond Uchenna of the SCIID Lagos , can we all introduce ourselves .

Raymond was not a stranger to how much Egoism could affect an operation like this moreso when some officials were not directly from the police force , I want as all to work together in a no holds barred manner , no one is superior to the others in this operation and thus I want us all to join hands for its success , most of us travelled a very long distance down here , so let's go freshen up and rest we'll meet tommorow morning.