Dirty Diamonds Of Boko Haram Part 1 (5 page)

Alex stared at Alhaji Mustapha Usman and his
anger swiftly turned to respect. One thing was for sure, he would
give his right eye to see those documents, every last one of them.
He was already dying to know who and who stabbed him in the back
and then there was the constant hint of a lot of money at a time he
had big money problems. Alex relaxed in the armchair and kept his
entire manner calm and controlled, his face completely
expressionless. It was never a good thing to let anyone see your
emotions.

“What is your offer and what is the task
required?” asked Alex calmly.

The Alhaji sat forward at once.

“Four months ago, my brother, went missing
while on a private business trip to the northern part of the
country, Maiduguri to be exact. He seems to have just disappeared
into thin air along with his Jeep, driver and bodyguard. I have had
the help of both the police, the Army and even the civilian JTF in
searching for them since but so far no traces of any of them have
been found anywhere” the Alhaji took a deep breath and continued.
“About a month ago, my niece, my brother’s only child, became
dissatisfied with all the efforts being made to find her father
and, against very advice, decided to take matters into her own
hands. Without even informing me she hired four men to help her and
flew in to Maiduguri three weeks ago to find her father. Four days
later, the bodies of all the four men turned up dead in a canal on
the outskirts of Maiduguri and my niece was nowhere to be found.
Having been there yourself you know exactly how crazy and dangerous
that city can be with the terrorist insurgency problems besieging
it. Once I heard of the bullet ridded state of the corpse of those
four men, I had very little hope of ever finding the girl they were
supposed to be guarding again, certainly not alive and unharmed. At
first I thought it was only a matter of time before the police or
JTF found her corpse somewhere but that never happen in three days
of intensive searching. I was beginning to lose hope of ever
finding my niece again, and then a week ago, right out of nowhere,
I got a phone call through her line but it wasn’t her, of course, I
spoke to a man that claimed to be her abductor. Mr. Okoye, my niece
is now being held for ransom by the terrorists, Boko Haram”

“Did you get proof of life and well-being?”
asked Alex at once.

“Proof of life, yes, I was allowed to speak
briefly with her, but what do you mean by proof of well-being?”

“Photos that prove she’s fine, tactical
questions and answers that show she hasn’t been hurt in anyway.
That is the universal basis for demanding and payment of ransom,
the victim must not be hurt in any way”

“I’m not a professional at handling
terrorists or critical negotiations of this nature like you are,
Mr. Okoye, and I am certainly at a loss as to how to tackle
kidnappers as such a thing has never occurred in my family before.
I was only allowed to speak to my niece for about two to three
seconds. She sounded terrified but very much alive”

“How much are they demanding?” asked
Alex.

“One million dollars”

“And you are prepared to pay that kind of
money to get your late brother’s daughter back?”

The Alhaji spread his hands. “Have I a
choice? This girl is an only child and that complicated this issue
a lot. The chibok girls were kidnapped only two months ago, three
hundred of them and the entire military of this country and even
the sophisticated US intelligence agencies watching from satellites
in the sky above, haven’t a single clue as to where the terrorist
took them to. No one can even do a thing about anything”

Alex didn’t have an answer for that one so he
changed angle. “Even with all your connections and justifiable
circumstance, neither the government nor the Army will permit you
to hand over that kind of money to those terrorist, that would
practically be arming them to wreck more havoc on this country.
Once you get the authorities involved in any manner, which you must
have to do anyway, this will become a strategic decision of
sacrificing the life of a single citizen against that of so many
others, you will definitely lose”

“I’m not stupid, Mr. Okoye. I realize only
too well how delicate and sensitive a matter this is which is one
reason I came all the way down here to meet privately with you
myself. I’m not bringing the government or the military into this,
just a few well-placed friends who will secretly lend me all the
help I require to get this done, from a few loyal soldiers to all
the necessary documents required to send them right through our
lines into enemy territory to meet privately with the terrorists.
The whole thing will be kept very secret from start to finish and
everything is already set, but there are, however, two problems in
the way and that is exactly where you come in. The first is that
these soldiers assigned to me are relatively new to the
north-eastern territories, and second, I need someone who can
adequately fill up the position of a professional negotiator. My
military contacts tell me you have fought in the north-eastern
territories for over two years and I was led predominantly to
understand that not only does your unique military trainings and
war experiences make you ideal for this mission, you are the best
man to lead it. But most importantly, you already have some kind of
history with the leader of the Boko Haram faction holding my
niece”

Alex wondered yet again where this man could
be getting all this high wired information but he was also
intrigued.

“Who’s he?”

“A certain El Soldat”

“
El Soldat
?” Alex sat up at once.
“That bastard is one of the smartest and most elusive war criminals
there has ever been. I hunted him for four months and only caught
up with him once. He got away by taking an entire village hostage,
slaughtered an entire family just to make his point and I ended up
bargaining my head off to save the lives of the rest. El Soldat is
an Arab fighting with the insurgents but he operates on a slightly
higher level which suggests he has some form of advanced military
training. If your niece is with him then God help you, and her too
because that man is proper bed news even on a good day and his
second-in-command isn’t far behind, I know exactly what I’m talking
about”

“Which is why you will be the one handling
negotiations with them” said the Alhaji at once.

“I haven’t agreed to take the offer yet"

“The whole thing won’t take more than a few
days of your time and I’m willing to pay you handsomely, ten
million naira”

“No sir, so sorry” Alex shook his head
firmly. He was a bit unsettled by the large amount, even tempted
but he wasn’t stupid and he was thinking with every cell in his
brain. “First of all, that entire state is now a full-fledged war
zone. With El Soldat within fifty miles of any point, that area
automatically become even more dangerous than the rest. That
bastard is a mass murderer who, in typical Islamic State style,
would blow up a crowded market place just to prove a point or get
at one single person. Secondly, your niece is most likely held
somewhere to the south of Bama, all that area is Boko Haram
stronghold right now and that’s where the kingpins are to be found.
Their headquarters, Sambisa forest, is right there, twenty-three
miles to the south east of Bama” Alex moved his finger in an arc,
drawing a wide circle. “Getting in and out of that area safely is
as good as impossible not to talk of highly dangerous, they behead
soldiers and Christians on sight down there and I fall into both
categories. If they find out I’m in the vicinity, they’ll come
after me like bats out hell and if I’m caught, I’m finished.
Thirdly, hostage exchange situations are not as simple as they
sound, particularly not with trigger happy terrorists. It’s always
a tense affair that could turn into a full blown gunfight in a
second, I’ve seen it happen too many times than I care to remember.
Lastly, the operation is definitely not legal which means that if I
get caught by the Army handing over hundreds of millions of naira
in hard currency to terrorists, I’m finished. I’ll be thrown into
jail without even the grace of a fake trial, that’s if I don’t get
lynched first, there’s very little tolerance for terrorist
sympathizers up there” Alex shook his head again. “I can’t accept
your offer, sir. I still like breathing as it is and I’m beginning
to enjoy civilian life”

“You and the other men will be issued special
military documents that will get you pass all checkpoints without
harassment and legalize your presence anywhere in the region” said
the Alhaji.

Alex was amazed. “How are you going to pull
off a thing like that?”

“That will be my problem, Mr. Okoye, and like
I’ve already proven to you, I do have the necessary connections. As
an ex-Military Intelligence operative you will, of course, be able
to testify to the legitimacy of any military document you receive.
I will pay you thirty million naira, half up front and the other
half after the operation. If all goes well and according to my
wishes, you will get a one hundred percent bonus, bringing your
total take to sixty million cash. And, of course, your military
files too”

Alex was stunned. His brain made the quick
conversion. The money was like a quarter of a million dollars!

“You don’t have to give me an answer right
now” said the Alhaji quickly, holding up his hands and getting to
his feet. “Think about it and sleep on it, but you only have
twenty-four hours to give the reply because the deadline I was
given by the terrorists expires eight days from today. I will be
flying back to Abuja first thing tomorrow morning to make some
final arrangements. If I get a consenting phone call from you
within the time frame, arrangements will be made at once for you to
come to Abuja. If I don’t get the phone call, then I will assume
your answer is still a ‘no’ and pick my second opinion to replace
you”

The man in the suit had already gotten to his
feet too. He dropped a white calling card on the low furniture
table in the center of the room before them.

“You have a good night, lieutenant” said the
Alhaji curtly and walked off for the door.

The man in the suit nodded once to Alex and
followed his boss. He hurried ahead to get the door open for
him.

Alex stayed put in his seat. The door would
automatically come unlocked once the knob-like handle was turned
from within

Mr. suit got the door open easily and held it
open for his boss. Both men walked out and the door closed
soundlessly after them.

Alex got up at once and went over to relock
the door. He replaced the gun in the wall clock and hung it back up
against the wall then went and sat down in the armchair again to
think.

Alex had joined the army five years ago,
right after completing his one-year National Youth Service Course
which was mandatory for all university graduate in Nigeria. He had
scaled through Army cadet school with flying colors, and then,
right after that, been one of the few soldiers selected for
advanced training to become part a new special commando unit being
formed to counter the growing insurgency problems facing the county
in the north-east. When the training was competed, he had been
posted directly to Adamawa state, another north-eastern state being
affected by serious insurgency problem. There in Adamawa state, he
had formed part of an elite commando unit that did battle with the
insurgents’ day and night for nearly a year until he was selected
for even more special trainings which turned him into something
else entirely…Special Forces. Once the new trainings were completed
he had promptly been sent back to Adamawa state, but this time as
part of an elite unit of Special Forces commandos that ran covert
operations under Military Intelligence against the Boko Haram
insurgents, and this went on for nearly six months until the
‘insurgency problem’ became a full blown war. Alex’s unit had been
transferred swiftly to neighboring Bornu state, the forefront of
the war, and there he had served his country with all his strength,
his might and his blood. Even when the bloody politician wouldn’t
provide adequate weapons for them to effectively counter the
increasing firepower of the insurgents, he had still continued with
the fight, went on for nearly two years until all the senseless
killings and sufferings of thousands and thousands of helpless
innocent souls finally got to him. The whole thing suddenly just
became too much for him to bear. It started eating away at his mind
and brain in a way he couldn’t quite understand or control. He had
handled most of the physical kick-backs of the problem well enough,
he had nerves of steel, but he was helpless against the nightmares,
the headaches, the constant anger and shortness of temper. And it
was the last two that led to the incident which ended his career
completely.

Alex remembered it all like it was only
yesterday but it all happened over six months ago.

Feeling the mixed emotions return, Alex
inwardly cautioned himself yet again as he had done so many times
since, that he had to let go of the past and move on with his life
even as it was.

It had turned out that all he needed, after
all, was just a prolonged period of rest and peace for both his
mind and body to pull itself together again. Six months of no war
had worked the miracle. His health was fine again and even the
nightmares had gone away.

Yes, his health and his mind were completely
restored to normal and that was the good twist to things but the
bad part was that he was almost broke.

As an Army officer, he had spent most of his
income in taking care of his poor family. His father had died less
than two years ago after a prolonged illness that had eaten up
money like dry ground soaked up water, nonetheless, his mother and
two siblings still had to be taken care of too. His younger brother
was now in the university with four more years to go while his
younger sister had recently gotten married and it had fallen to him
to set up her semi-educated husband as a taxi driver. They all
lived happily in the nice house he had built back east in hometown
of Imo state, and they still thought he was an Army officer, still
believe the money was there. Alex wasn’t about to enlighten them
out anytime soon, no, that bit of information alone would kill his
ailing mother who had been so proud of him from the very first day
he came home wearing a military uniform and people began to fear
him. He still sent them money regularly now as best as he could but
the burden was beginning to tell greatly, the income of an ordinary
warehouse foreman was by no means the same as that of an officer in
the military. He was, of course, planning to get another job but it
was so hard in this terrible economy even with his university
degree which was why he had accepted this job as foreman in the
first place.