The death of Sir Jones hit me hard. I had to take a break from work. I paid my staff and had them go on vacation as I mourn the death of the only brother I've ever had. During this period, a tragic situation happened. The MBC group in Lagos states usually has its general meeting quarterly in a secret location. It was another time of the year for the meeting. Somehow, the information about their meeting got to the police. The police stormed the venue during the meeting and engaged in a shootout with the drug Lords and their bodyguards. It was a bloody exchange between them. Few got arrested while others escaped. Thank goodness I didn't attend the meeting.
The president of the club ordered all transactions to be stopped in the state for some time until he could get those arrested out of the police den and everyone should go into hiding. Most of the members of the club eloped out of the country while leaving their agents and delivery guys at the mercy of the police and other armed forces. Since I'm the only one living in the house, I took three of the guys who couldn't find a place to hide in. They disguised themselves when coming in so that the security wouldn't recognize them or raise alarm. We lived together ever since then.
There were no trade or business transactions for months except for those taking drugs out of the country and that was damn too risky. Although I have been involved in some international business before, It wasn't me who delivered the goods. My agent did and now they've all gone into hiding. I couldn't do anything to make money. The figures in my account were reducing by the day since I was feeding three other mouths. At some point, frustration set in, and I started looking for other means to get money. A movie provided me with a solution to the problem at hand.
On this particular afternoon, my housemates and I were watching a Nollywood movie titled"Brotherhood" The movie was action-packed and full of suspense. There was a series of robbery attacks on banks and bullion vans in the movie. I told the guys to concentrate on the movie and observe closely how the armed robber planned every robbery and carried them out successfully. After the movie, I told the guys we could do the same. We have the weapons needed. They objected at first but I talked them into agreeing with my idea. I convinced the three of them with sweet words and how juicy the job can be, even going as far as threatening to send them out of the house if they refused to accept the idea. At last, they agreed to go on only two operations and quit thereafter. That's how I became an armed robber.
Getting necessary information about the banks we launched attacks on wasn't difficult, I have girlfriends in different banks working as staff. It was just a few chats with each of them and some little cash offering and they gave in since they are not well paid. Our first operation was sometime in the middle of last year. We attacked a commercial bank in Ikoyi, Stanbic IBTC. The operation was smooth and successful, no one was killed or hurt and we got a lot of money. Ever since then, it has been from one operation to another. None of us ever raised any issue about quitting the job. The luxurious life got us so carried away that we didn't think about getting caught someday.
Few weeks before our last operation, I mean the Ikeja Saga that got us here. I started having weird feelings and nightmares. My parents were always in my dream telling me to stop. Whenever they appear in my dream, all they usually say is "Stop before it's too late". Sometimes my mum would be crying and begging me to stop but I always shook it off whenever I woke up. The dream became consistent but I paid no attention to it. I was only concerned about the good life and how to keep it going.
My guys came to the house to talk about their own different experiences and their decision to quit the job and start a legal business. Their decision didn't go down well with me, so I started finding a way to talk them out of their decision in my head. I know if they quit, I have to quit too. I was still speaking to them when we got this information from one of our sources about a huge money that would be brought into FirstBank in Ikeja the next day by some Chinese company that wanted to start a business in Nigeria. The money was supposed to be about 500 million dollars. They all screamed when they heard the news. I convinced them to let us do the last operation and after that, they could quit. The money is enough to establish us for life after all. They all agreed and that was the beginning of our doom.
To be continued
Thanks for visiting my blog.
