MAD

Episode

Richard Ajibola Ogunderu sauntered from his father's house on Adelabu Street in Surulere heading for Kilo hotel along Marsha street confident that the man he was meeting there would already be waiting for him since he had more or less made the hotel his home over the past couple of days. It was late October 1993 and even though he would be carrying out the scariest and most daring act of his young life in the next 24hrs, the 19 year old Richard couldn't help but ponder how cool it was for someone to almost permanently live in a hotel “room service at your beck and call 24/7...what a dope-a*s life” he chuckled to himself. But as it had become the norm with him lately, his brief moment of mirth suddenly turned to sadness again by the harsh reality that surrounded him. The streets, littered with all manner of dirt, (since the environmental agency like most government parastatals had been shut down due to the riots and strikes) stunk badly.And then that memory came flooding his mind once again. It was now a recurring decimal in his head...just three days after the annulment, Richard had witnessed for the first time in his life the blatant murder of an innocent citizen live and direct - as they say in local parlance - by the police. The irony of the whole thing was that during the first two days following the annulment, the police drank booze with the protesters and chanted anti military songs with them as Abiola (the clear winner of the elections) though a very wealthy man, was well admired and immensely popular amongst the masses which of course included the Nigerian police....at least its rank and file. But suddenly on the third day of the protests the same policemen on Adelabu Street who everyone in the neighbourhood, including mothers, fathers, children and of course area boys had begun to see as comrades in the struggle, started firing guns. At first it was into the air perhaps to disperse the crowd but later they started to aim directly at people and in no time someone had been shot.It was Habib the neighbourhood Disc Jokey who also doubled as a barber. As Habib was drowning in his pool of blood, Ifeanyi, Lekan, and Jide, all guys from the neighbourhood, felt he was too important in the hood to be left hanging like that, so at risk to their own lives they came out of their hiding places to help carry Habib to where he could at least receive some medical attention......the cops who had stationed themselves at the entrance of the street, several meters away from where Habib laid slumped on the ground in the middle of the road had stopped shooting at this point.The three guys carried Habib up, two of them lifting each arm with the third carrying his both legs and where about moving him when another shot rang out and Jide dropped to the floor forcing the other two to take to their heels.....days later it was confirmed that Jide survived but Habib didn't make it.....the police in their defence years later will claim they were also victims merely following orders from above.The tears streamed freely down his face as Richard continued his walk across the intersection between Marsha Kilo streets, anger swelling up in his veins.Habib had been loved by everyone in the area and he had always treated Richard like a little brother. Like everyone else, Richard had scampered for safety when the police started shooting and had managed to run back inside his father's house where he and his entire family witnessed the gory scene of Habib’s killing from their living room window. It was almost 7pm now and the streets where already scanty as most people had hurried home scared of what the night might bring.The few who did stay out or were just coming out are, well simply looking for nocturnal opportunities to take advantage of. But Richard knew he was safe. Jerry had made sure of that. That was one of the things he had first found impressive about Jerry Yusuf the 42 year old man he was meeting at Kilo Hotel. A German trained lawyer with senior level experience in banking, Yusuf was a corporate professional who had immense clout and commanded respect on the streets. Three other teenagers like himself - Kabir Adenuga 19, Benneth Oluwadaisi 20 and Kenny Razak-Lawal 18 will be attending the meeting also, just as they all have been doing for the past couple of weeks now except that this was the final meeting before D-day and their lives was about to change forever.

Please fasten your seat belts as we will be passing through a patch of clouds" announced the pilot of Nigerian Airways Airbus A310, they were mid-sky through their take-off from the Muritala Mohammed Airport in Ikeja, Lagos heading for the capital city AbujaAboard where very important dignitaries including Rong Yiren Vice President of China.Also on-board where Richard and the other 3 guys that had met with Jerry Yusuf at Kilo Hotel the previous night. In a twist of fate, Richard who was the last among the pack of four to be recruited into the Movement for Advancement of Democracy (MAD) founded by Jerry Yusuf, was appointed the leader of the operation by Yusuf the mastermind who himself will not partake in the actual hijack.As the leader of the operation, Richard was charged with making the announcement of the hostile takeover of the plane and proceed to the cockpit to issue orders to the pilot along with kabir while Benneth and Kenny manned the passengers.With is heart thumping rapidly, his sweaty hands reached for the toy g*n he had tucked into the black socks he wore over his reebok sneakers. He was surprised at how steady his hand was as he pulled it out and even more surprised at the calmness of his own voice when he stood up, took a few steps forward to the center of the plane and hollered at the top of his voice "Ladies and gentlemen, this plane has been taken over by the Movement for the Advancement of Democracy, remain calm, we will not harm you. You will be told where the plane will land you"Instant shrieks of panic from the passengers where quickly muffled as Kenny, Kabir and Benneth spread themselves across the plane, each brandishing guns in their hands which unknown to the passengers where all toy guns.Remembering a scene he had seen in the movie Passenger 57 (one of the films Jerry had made them watch as part of their training), Richard grabs an extremely frightened air hostess and matches her to the cockpit. He orders her to knock on the door and as soon as she does, he pushes her gently aside and takes a hard kick at the door"open this door or I blow her head off" he screamsAbout half an hour later Richard is sipping coffee in the cockpit , listening to the pilot, Captain Hassan Suleman as he tries to convince him that they would all eventually die of plane crash if they didn't find an airport to land soon as the fuel in the jet was only sufficient for domestic flights and had no chance in hell of taking them to Germany which was the hijackers planned destination. Pilot : the only chance we have now of stopping this plane from crashing before even you get a chance to blow it off is to land in a neighbouring country like Ghana.Richard deep in thought sips on his coffee and after a while looks straight into the eyes of the pilot and says "captain you are sure the fuel in this tank cannot take us outside West Africa at least?""Yes" came the replyVoice Over: After being denied landing in Ghana, Cameroon and Benin, the plane was finally allowed to land in Niamey, the capital of the Republic of Niger. As the plane taxied along the runway, Richard could see from the vantage position he was sitting in the cockpit, hundreds of g*n wielding soldiers encircling the plane.