Lt. Clottey did not wait for the Vice-President to ask him again why he ‘ordered ‘her not to turn the key in the ignition and why he was sweating.
“Her Excellency, with their Plan A failing, I have been thinking of what their Plan B would be. While in there, I have been trying to put myself in their shoes to determine their next cause of action. Moreover, just before you turned the key in the ignition, it occurred to me that they might have wired your car with explosives while we were in there; the moment you try to switch the ignition on, the car would go up in flames together with whoever is in it. It is just a hunch”
“Wow! You mean there may be a bomb in this car?” she asked.
“Yes, Madam, I may be wrong so the best thing for us to do is to check from the CCTV camera’s if anybody was near your car while we were in there while we were waiting for the forensic team” the soldier said
The two quickly made their way back to the main building and took the lift to the last floor. When they got out, Vice-President Gertrude Mensah, led the way to the Operations Room at the Presidency where the TV monitors of the CCTV were. A young man, a National Security Operative, let them in.
“How are you, Baba? Hope everything is fine?” the Vice-President said. Baba responded to the greetings. His colleague, obviously his senior, got up to welcome the Vice-President and Lt. Clottey.
“This is Nana Yaw Ampiah, head of the surveillance Department at the Presidency,” the Vice-President said, introducing the senior national security operative to Lt. Clottey. She then instructed that the camera that secures the western compound where she had parked her car was brought up on the screen. The two security operatives immediately set to work. In less than a minute, a view of the western compound appeared on a big screen in the room. All could see the Vice President’s car clearly.
“Rewind it to 4:00 am and then get it running a bit fast. We want to see all that took place by the car at 4:00 a.m” Lt. Clottey said.
“Sure sir” Nana Yaw Ampiah said. They sent the recording of the activity backwards to 4:00 a.m and then began to play it, allowing the film to run a bit fast. There was silence in the room as what was recorded played out. For a while, nothing happened. No one went by car. After a while, they watched, as a security man on duty, a police officer on duty came strolling by the car. She stopped by it, leaned against it for a while and then moved on. A few minutes later, they saw a man in an overall blue working gear walk pass the car. Seconds later, he returned, walking past the car again.
“Please slow it down” Lt. Clottey directed the two operatives. They complied. The Vice-President, Lt. Clottey and the two operatives looked on as the man in the over-all walked away but soon returned and stopped by the car.
“Who is that man?” Lt. Clottey asked.
“That is Cpl. Paul Attinka of 59 Engineers Regiment. He is in charge of the Vehicle Maintenance Workshop here at the Presidency, sir” Baba replied.
The four in the room continued to stare with interest at what was taking place on the screen; Sgt. Attinka, standing by the car, looked furtively around, hesitated and then quickly slipped under it. A few seconds later, he came out and opened the bonnet of the car. Then still looking around furtively for a while, and apparently satisfied that nobody was looking, opened the bonnet and began to fidget with parts of the engine. No one could tell what he was doing. After a while, they saw him open the bag he was holding, lift what looked like explosives from it and place it in the bonnet.
“Oh my God,” Vice-President Gertrude Mensah gasped in surprise.