Tarasha - Season 4 - Episode 40

Episode 4 years ago

Tarasha - Season 4 - Episode 40

A delicious aroma was what woke Henry. He found himself sprawled on the floor of the living room. Only Cole was still there with him, sleeping on the sofa but was wide awake. He sat up and yawned. It was afternoon already.

He got up and stretched as he walked. He traced the aroma to the dining room and found Omotara there seated with Tomi and eating. He could see two other plates served, his and Cole’s.
Two hours later, everyone had eaten and had freshened up. Tarasha requested that they had a brief discussion before they all continued with their rests which she knew they may still need to get more of.

She sat at the sofa by the left. Cole sat at the three seater in the middle, Henry at the one seater beside Tomi and Tomi on the one seater facing Tarasha directly. All had their faces turned to Tarasha. The whole place was dead silent.
‘Today, we escaped narrowly. That news saved us. It could be because of carelessness on their part or the hardwork of the journalist even though now he or she would be facing queries as the government have turned his report to a lie. If Rex had been at that place when I came, I would have given him a good fight but he was readier than I was and he had the location set up, he had that advantage. But that’s why I involved the police, to distract him and shake his plan a bit. There was no fight at the end, he probably left it for another day or was ordered to retreat by his sponsors. But we have to tighten up now and get ready for the other day coming. Rex is not our target, we have no business with him but since he’s a barrier, we’ll make plans for him. We’re taking things one after the other but not slowly. Our targets are Vice President and the Inspector General. The strategy to get them is not fully made up yet, in fact not up to twenty percent. But we now have our weak links closed, Rex cannot intimidate anyone using their families anymore, and then we have a new asset.’ Tarasha paused and moved her gaze from one person to the other, she balanced her gaze on Tomi. ‘That asset is you, no one knows about you with us and we can still use your real identity without needing a disguise.’

She looked away from Tomi and stood up. ‘Like I said, we have our weak links closed. We only need to finish up our strategy and I’ll be leaving Abuja again tomorrow for this cause.’ she stopped and began to look at each one’s face one after the other. ‘The most important thing we need to do now is to ensure we don’t create any link for the enemy to come in.’

___________
Location: The Presidential Villa. Aso Rock, Abuja.

Time : 3:32pm

On a large dining table, there were assorted dishes and drinks. Seven men were seated around it. President Emeka sat at the middle, three people including the Vice President at the left and three others at the right. The other five people at the table included elder statesmen and politicians. They dined quietly and exchanged jokes occasionally. There had been a two hours meeting earlier where they discussed several issues affecting the country and decided to wrap up the meeting with lunch.

‘Will you be contesting for President next year?’ one of the men seated at the right asked, looking straight at the Vice President with a serious expression on his face.

The Vice President spilled the drink in his hand as the question met him by surprise. They had all finished eating already.

‘Sorry,’ Chief Elvis Richard apologized as he wiped the table with a napkin. His mind searched for the right answer to give. The truth was that he had the Presidency in mind but had never made his intention known public and wasn’t ready to say it until the last minute.

He looked up after folding the napkin back to shape. All eyes were on him. He cleared his throat. ‘I do really think so sir,’ he finally replied. ‘Yes, I think I would love to continue the good work President Emeka has been doing.’

‘Nice.’ Another man commented. He was the President of the country years ago, now in his old age.

The place was dominated by silence.
The man who had asked the question was Chief Afeez Abdulkadir, a retired politician, stinkingly rich and highly respected in the country. His age could not really be told from his looks but with his experience and how long he had been on the scene, one could guess he was in his eighties or probably early nineties. He still had a strong figure, clear voice and manageable vision. He never contested for the office of the President during his days but he was influential and his say always affected the elections in different states. For several years he had been quiet and living his life peacefully. He never really got close to any President except for Emeka who once worked as the CEO of one of his companies.

Elvis Richards also greatly feared and respected the man. He had gotten the opportunity of working with the man closely during his career in the security force and he knew how secretly powerful this man was, especially in the northern region where he was from and which was the most populated region of the country. He knew how the man’s opinion could affect his chances of being the President.

‘Have you ever made your intentions know to anyone?’ Chief Abdulkadir asked.

‘Not until now sir. We’ve been so busy with the progress activities in the nation that I hardly have time to think about this or talk about next year elections.’

Chief Abdulkadir licked his lips gently. He picked a glass of water and drank a little. ‘I was just thinking about the recent security issues, the assassinations and the attempt, the trial on your life. Could they be political? Could it be that someone sees you as a potential candidate and a threat to him?’

There was silence for a couple of seconds.
‘But I never mentioned this out, I hardly even had time to think about it.’ Elvis Richards said in a thoughtful tone.

‘You don’t need to say anything about it, people are watching you and they know your potentials.’ Chief Abdulkadir said.
President Emeka comes in, ‘But sir, in recent times. We have not really had any case of political assassinations. Our elections have been an example to other African countries and the world.’

‘Yes, your excellency.’ Chief Abdulkadir courtesied. ‘There has not been any case of political assassination recently, it doesn’t mean there were no intentions. And you see, since the outside world began to term our country as developed or close to being developed and our security and military became tight, it’s difficult for an attempt to be made. And you’ll agree with me that the recent assassinations were well strategized and must have been heavily paid for.’

Everyone on the table nodded thoughtfully in agreement with his words.

‘We need to watch it carefully. I think we need to beef up security as the elections draws nearer. Several people have come out to state their intentions to contest and we need to prevent a case where there would be bloodshed.’

‘Hmm… Thank you sir for bringing this up,’ President Emeka smiled thoughtfully.
_________