I was still in shock over the story I had just heard. The driver didn’t seem to have been paying attention to what the man had been saying because he was still making a lot of fuss about taking him to the garage.
I looked back at the boot area trying to see if I could make out any Ghana Must Go bag but it was properly covered.
Oh Lord.
Summoning the last bit of energy I had in my weak and burning body, I tried to get the driver’s attention.
‘You don hear his story? Listen to him’, I told him.
‘Madam! I must take him to the garage. They will take care of him there’, replied the driver.
‘Oga, relax. Clear for road make we hear the man story. Ehn? Abeg’, the front seat passenger pleaded.
The driver calmed down and drove a little further down the road and parked properly at the side of the road. I lay down for a few seconds to catch my breath before the drama began again.
The driver stopped the car and turned around to hear the story which the man narrated.
‘So you tiff the money sef? Abeg, I no dey hear. I dey carry this man go garage!’
‘Ok. Guy, instead of you to dey rush this ting, why you no try confam the man story? Ehn? Find the alhaja woman, instead of taking him to the garage. If you carry this man go garage, dey go kill am and you yourself you sabi wetin I dey talk. E dey happen every day. No be the same ting dey take do those ALUU boys, ehn?’
The driver started the car and we began to move.
‘How much you say dey for inside the bag?’ asked the front seat passenger.
‘I no care. I dey carry am go garage’, murmured the driver.
‘Oga calm down first.’, said the front seat passenger. ‘How much you talk say you carry?’
‘1.2million dollars’, replied the man sadly.’Oga, help me beg am. Make im give me my bag make I just dey go’
‘Driver, just give this man im ting make e dey go’, I pleaded.
The driver sighed as if in agrement with my final plea.
‘Ok, you know wetin go happen? We wey don dey beg on your behalf, you go compensate us. Driver make we clear proper.’
This was getting too much for me. The driver drove up to a junction near the university and drove into another empty street.
‘How much you go take compensate us?’ asked the front seat passenger
We all looked at the man and he replied saying,
‘Na 1.2 million dollars dey for the bag so I go fit to give everybody S12,000.’
He looked at me, the front seat passenger and the driver. I expected a lot more emotion from a person being threatened to be given away to an angry mob but not a single tear or extreme fear. Just the same sad face.
‘Madam, you agree?’, aske dthe front seat passenger.
Twelve thousand dollars is a lot of money, I reasoned to myself. Imagine what I could with all of it. I could take my friends to KFC and the new clothes? My savings would be out of this world…at least, out of where it is right now.
‘I don’t want any of your money’, I said. ‘I am fine.’
The front seat passenger began to look puzzled.
‘Madam, this is how God dey take bless person. You no hear the amount wey im call?’
‘ I hear wetin e talk and I’m fine, thank you! I just want to go home’
The driver began to look very sad.
‘Madam’, he said to me ‘If you no collect this money I go dey fear. What if I collect am something come do me?’
Ah. See this guy O! That’s when my faith got stronger. I don’t want any part of this shenanigan. Oh, so when they start flying at night because of money, they’d be calling me as well? When I am supposed to be sleeping? I don’t do broomsticks at night. No.
‘I am grateful but no thanks. Driver , please let me just go. I am not feeling well. I just want to go home’
‘Madam, e be like say God don bless you?’, asked the front seat passenger.
‘Yes, yes, he has. I am fine where I am. Can I go home please?’ I was starting to get irritated.
‘Pepper don set? You are comfortable abi? What did you say your name is aunty?’ he kept asking.
‘Driver, please can I go home? My temperature is rising. I am ill.’
The front seat passenger told the driver to let me go.
I opened the door.
As I walked out, I looked at the man seated beside me one last time
‘As for you…’, I had nothing else to say. My fever had gotten worse. I had to hurry home.
I didn’t understand what had just happened to me. In my mind, I had just saved a man from dying. But after narrating my ordeal to my friends at the office, they told me that they have friends who had had the exact same experience.One of them said that I was lucky, if i had agreed, I would be taken away and used for probably ritual purposes.
Boy, was I terrified or what? What if these people find me again?
I have changed the route which I follow home from work.
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If you have had an experience like this one, feel free to share.
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