EPISODE 6
written by Nkemjika Valentine
The next few weeks were an interesting one for the fraternity. Chuka was nowhere to be found and the police was everywhere picking up frat members one after the other. It was obvious Richmond talked either with a deal or with torture. It was one of the greatest single busts by the police in recent times. About half of the old timers were picked up while the rest and Chuka disappeared, creating a huge leadership vacuum on the frat, something Jones had been waiting for and so without wasting time, convened a general meeting for a new temporal leadership.
Now with almost the free members at his side, Jones felt he had nobody to oppose him and so set up a very big meeting at Pines Pool bar. Everyone was assured of safety and security with lots of goodies to enjoy and so on that very day every single surviving frat member showed up and of course they were there for no other reason than to swear their allegiance to Jones as the new Capon in waiting.
However unknown to Jones, Chuka didn’t disappear that day to hide forever. He had his own contacts, he had his own people even in the police force and so after a week when the tension had died down, visited Richmond in police cell as his cousin. Seeing Richmond that day brought tears to his eyes. He had been badly beaten. His right leg bandaged.
‘’I was shot on the leg’’ he explained to his old pal.
‘’it’s terrible brother’’ he cried while Chuka tried to hold his tears. He never imagined seeing Richmond in such condition.
‘’but what do you think?, how did they get to know about our movements?’’ he asked his friend who nodded.
‘’they had information about our movement that day. They have names of some of us. They were well informed and I know it wasn’t done by an outsider. One of us snitched’’ he revealed while Chuka nodded in agreement. It was now getting so clear to him. How come the police knew things an outsider wasn’t supposed to know?. How come they picked up most of their own set, even those that were not too active and vocal anymore whereby, not touching anyone from the younger set whose blood were still boiling. His instincts immediately pointed to Jones and of course who else could have the mind to do such thing? He reasoned. It would be him and nobody else. He bit his lips in anger and of course he had been hearing rumors of a get-together to select a new head orchestrated by him.
‘’rat . snitch’’ he bit his lips in anger.
‘’don’t worry. I will take care of things. Just hang on. We will try and raise money and get you out. But first I have to stop that boy’’ he breathed angrily.
Dealing with Jones he knew wasn’t going to be easy since he had almost all the available boys in his pocket. He needed resources. He needed money and men but how do he go about it? He wondered as an idea struck him.
Without another word, he took a cab and headed to the federal university in a neighboring state about 40km from his school. The capon in charge of his frat in that school was a good friend and he knew he could get the needed resources from him.
