Anthills of the Savannah - Chinua Achebe [80]
They left the flat so that Beatrice could go to work. Chris advised her not to make enquiries on the matter from her office but to leave everything to him.
He spent the entire morning on the telephone. The mental immobility which the devastation in Ikem’s flat had induced in him had now lifted completely. His mind got clearer on what he had to do as he went along doing it. Major Ossai was not available to speak to him and nobody else in the Directorate could help with the information he required.
The President’s Principal Secretary would not put him through but promised to call him back as soon as the President was free to talk to him. What was the subject of his discussion? Oh, but that is not a matter for the President. You want to speak to the Director of SRC.
Then he called the Attorney-General who said he didn’t know about it.
“But aren’t you supposed to know?”
“Well, yes and no. If it is purely a matter of state security it could be tricky… I will know ultimately of course, you know…”
Professor Okong hadn’t heard; and the Chief Secretary to the Government had just this minute been told by the Attorney-General.
Oh, well! No point continuing to search for the living among the dead! So he changed tack. It was clear that Major Samsonite Ossai and his boss were adopting a quiet line. Therefore he must embark on a massive publicizing of the abduction. He knew he could count on some of the representatives in Bassa of foreign news agencies, their press and radio. On the home front there was no comparable resource to lean on but there was the enormous potential of that great network nicknamed VOR, the Voice of Rumour, the despair of tyrants and shady dealers in high places. Before evening both systems, foreign and local seemed set to start buzzing in the interest of the abducted man.
Then at six o’clock yet another Special Announcement from the Directorate of State Research Council was on the air:
In the discharge of its duty in safeguarding the freedom and security of the State and of every law-abiding citizen of Kangan the State Research Council has uncovered a plot by unpatriotic elements in Kangan working in concert with certain foreign adventurers to destabilize the lawful government of this country.
This dastardly plot was master-minded by Mr. Ikem Osodi until recently Editor of the government-owned National Gazette.
Investigations by top security officers of SRC have revealed Mr. Osodi’s involvement in three separate aspects of the plot:
(1) He was the key link between the plotters in Kangan and their foreign collaborators.
(2) He was the lynchpin between the plotters in Bassa and a group of disgruntled and unpatriotic chiefs in the Province of Abazon.
(3) Under the guise of a public lecture at the University of Bassa on 26 September, Mr. Osodi furthered the aim of the plotters by inciting the students of the University to disaffection and rebellion against the government and the life of His Excellency the President and the peace and security of the State.
In the early hours of this morning a team of security officers effected the arrest of Mr. Osodi in his official flat at 202 Kingsway Road in the Government Reservation Area and were taking him in a military vehicle for questioning at the SRC Headquarters when he seized a gun from one of his escorts. In the scuffle that ensued between Mr. Osodi and his guards in the moving vehicle Mr. Osodi was fatally wounded by gunshot.
His Excellency has already appointed a high-level inquiry into the accident to be headed by the Chief of Staff, Major-General Ahmed Lango, with the directive to commence investigations immediately and to report within fourteen days.
Meanwhile investigations are proceeding with a view to uncover all aspects of the plot and to bring to book any other