MY DUTY TOUR MEMOIRS

Awka, Anambra State   Bakassi Boys! Famed. Dreaded. The deadly scourge against mean spirited criminals. Tales of their exploits stretch beyond mere reality into the realms of mythology. The modus operandi of this crime busting boys and the feats ascribed to them were proclaimed aloft as being derived from supernatural sources.  When the umbrella group of Aba shoemakers resolved to restore the business integrity of their group, after a deadly breach of trust almost ruined the shoe manufacturing business in Aba, they never knew that they were embarking on a venture that would, to a very large extent, deal ruthlessly with the perpetrators and sponsors of violent crimes in the whole South East of Nigeria.  The famed feats of the Bakassi boys!—howling gales surging far ahead of their physical presence; striking fear into the hearts of even the most hardened of criminals. Soon, their physical tentacles could be felt everywhere—in all nooks and crannies of the East.  The me...

  1 st Assassination Attempt (The Kaduna Golgotha) conclusion They were three men and a woman. I could see them approaching through the gate by the Sentry Post. One of the men in police uniform was carrying a riffle. The other two men were in mufti but one conspicuously displayed a hand gun, while the other had his weapon concealed, tucked in at the back of his trousers. Hajara, an officer under me in the Operations Department, was the woman. She led the way, pointing at my apartment as they marched with discernible urgency to the direction of the Senior Officers’ quarters. An electric wave of impulse, a kind of prompting, flashed through me. The malevolent vibrations spewing out of them were palpable. I could feel them. Instantly I knew that they came with the intent to cause harm. On instinct, I pulled my psychic wrap tightly around me, therefore, not only was I completely obscured from their sight, but also, their evil thoughts kept bouncing back at them. Hajara’s lips we...

  Kaduna the Golgotha (continued) . A swarm of Tsetse Flies There, hovering above, just below the ceiling, were two tsetse flies. Tightly they clung to each other. Am I seeing conjoined tsetse fly twins? Or has my office become a mating nest for these flies? I briefly thought. But the flies kept gliding above. Sometimes they drifted away, evading my watchful eyes. Then they would always suddenly reappear with a determined dive towards me, as if trying to land on my head. I instinctively grabbed a white folio-size cardboard sheet on my office table, thrust it forward with a side of the sheet facing the coupled pair of flies now resting on the wall behind my office table. With stealth, I stalked the uninvited pestilential guests, the spread out white card-board sheet between us. Invariably the pair did not notice my approach, since they are by nature insensitive to solid, white colour surfaces. With the white paper screen less than 10 cm from the blood sucking demon flies, I wa...

  Kaduna the Golgotha The voice. It was very clear. It came drifting towards me, as always, wrapped in a subtle blaze of soft, luminous blue light. It was a mild, alluring sound as of a woodwind instrument. I had barely concluded my early morning contemplation when I heard a mild voice say: “It is time to move on. There are still many challenges ahead; so much yet to learn, and unlearn”.     The voice was emphatic. Very gentle. Quite soothing. Pleasant and reassuring as ever. It was a voice I grew up with. With joyful expectation, I went about the day’s business. But the eagerly awaited tutorial from the Inner Master, which I thought was what the inner voice conveyed to me, did not come. However, I was about closing for the day when Tarki, a very brilliant and intelligent officer who was my Staff Officer (Operations) came into my office. “Sir, there is a staff transfer list from the National Headquarters. You may like to go through it before you close for the ...