BY ADA DIKE
Few days after John’s demise, the journey
to unravel his assailant wasn’t too long and difficult for the police.
32-year-old John, shrewd business man who
resided in Lagos was dealing in hair extensions for many years before he died. He
was importing different kinds of hair extensions from Brazil.
One day, after taking stock of his goods, and
based on requests from some of his distributors, he decided to travel to China
to buy hair extensions and to know how his elder brother Mike, who was residing
in China was faring because his mother was worried that Mike had not visited
home for ten years after he travelled out.
“Brother, good evening, Sorry, I don’t know
what time is it in China, but it is 5 pm in Nigeria. (Laughs),” says Mike.
“Wow! Nice hearing from you, John. How are
you, Mama and the rest of our family?”
“They are fine. Brother, I will be coming
to China next week Thursday to buy goods and also see you. You know, it is been
long you left the shores of Nigeria and Mama is worried, so I told her that I
will visit you and take pictures with you to show her that you are doing well
in China.”
“That will be nice, John. See you soon.”
John gave Mike details of his trip
including the name of the hotel he would stay. After hanging up, John giggled
when he reminisced when they were young and attending the same school but in
different classes, Mike, being in an upper class would regularly visit his
class to make sure nobody is disturbing him. Whenever he was sick, Mike would
sit beside him and encourage him to be well.
He didn’t know Mike has changed and was
living a life opposite of himself in China. In fact, he was jobless there and
used money he got through robbery and fraud to take hard drugs. He and his gang
are notorious there. They attacked everyone they suspected was having money
including their friends. It was one of the reasons some Nigerians don’t
disclose to anyone when they are travelling to Nigeria or any of their friends
and relations is visiting China.
Immediately John checked into his hotel
room in China, he called to inform his brother, Mike that he had arrived.
“Can you tell me your room number, John?”
Mike requested.
“My room number is 504. When are you
coming?”
“I will be there by 4 pm tomorrow.”
“Alright brother. Bye.”
Excitedly, John knelt down, raised his
hands in ecstasy and thanked God that he would soon see his brother.
Sitting on a chair in the empty room he was
living with his friends, Mike swore to teach his brother a lesson.
“How can my own younger brother come all
the way from Nigeria with huge amount of money to intimidate me here because I
don’t have a job? No, I won’t take it. It is either I send my guys to rob him
or I finish him, collect his money and visit Nigeria to show them that I have arrived.
If they ask me of his where about, I will tell them that he has not called me
for some days.”
Mike staggered, brought a bottle of liquor
to cool down his temper and later slept off.
When he got to the hotel and put a call
across to his brother, out of joy, John went to the reception to usher his
elder brother to his room.
“Oh my God! You are looking good, John. It
seems it is easy to make money in Nigeria than here. I am virtually living from
hand to mouth here and surviving by the grace of God. At 32, you already have a
wife and two children while I am yet to find my feet in China after 10 years. I
feel like killing myself now.”
“God forbid! I won’t allow you to kill
yourself. Instead, I will make arrangement for you to return to Nigeria and
join me in my business,” John replied Mike as tears swelled in his eyes.
“Me, returning to be your servant in
Nigeria? Never! Fool, I will never be a servant to my younger brother. I will
deal with you today so that you won’t put me to shame in the eyes of our family
members,” Mike whispered to himself.
John took hours to tell Mike all that had
happened in their family, village and Nigeria. Around 8 pm, Mike told John that
he wanted to go home to come back the following day and escort him to the
market. John smiled and thanked him. John disclosed to him that he had the sum of
30, 000 US dollars for the trip.
As Mike stood up to ease himself, John
started to wear his shoes in order to see him off. But Mike emerged from the
toilet, holding dangerous weapons including a gun, jack knife and so on.
“John, if you move, I kill you. Bring out
all the money you came here with. How can I be hungry and you are here bragging
that you have 30, 000 US dollars with you here.”
Shaking in bewilderment, John opened his
briefcase, brought out the money and said: “Brother Mike, please, you can have
the money. Please don’t kill me. I am your only brother.”
John was average height and slim while Mike
was more than six-feet-tall, looking tough and huge due to his constant
training and lifting up of heavy irons while building his muscles.
He collected the money and put it inside
his jacket and told John: “If I go with this money without killing you, you
will report me to Mama and the whole world that I collected your money. so …”
Mike raised the gun in the air, asked John
to lie down and face the floor. He did. He went close and covered his mouth,
tied his hands and feet and twisted his neck till he stopped breathing. He
quietly left the hotel and disappeared into the street.
The following morning, after waiting for
hours, the hotel chef called an intercom in John’s room to know what he would
want to have for breakfast. No response. More than two hours went by, she
called John’s room number again, but he didn’t answer. He alerted the
receptionists, hotel manager and they tried all possible means to get in touch
with John. They later opened his room and found him dead. They alerted the
police. John’s corpse was deposited in a morgue. The police began to unravel
the mystery of his death.
Since it was only Mike who visited John in
that hotel, they got his picture from the CCTV and started looking for him.
Mike went into hiding.
After two months, he felt that the coast
was clear and decided to relocate to Nigeria and start up a business with the
money he stole from his brother. As he
was trying to check-in at the airport in China, the police arrested him.
“I did not kill him. He died by accident.”
When they got to the police station, the
police revealed the autopsy to him and he wept sorely, blaming himself for
killing his own blood brother.
“I swear, it was the devil that lured me to
kill him. He is my blood brother and I love him so much. Please pardon me. If
you kill me or send me to prison, my mother will die of heart attack. It won’t
be nice for her to lose her two sons and die wretchedly. Please, please …” Mike
pleaded in Chinese language.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment.
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