President Marfo spoke up. He said the narration was just too much for him to digest; that it is obvious so much has taken place at his blind side the past 72 hours while he was on admission at the hospital.
“So where is Ian Sackey?” he asked and was told the National Security Coordinator had been assassinated ostensibly on the orders of his deputy, Rex Yamoah. The President bowed his head for a while. His grief was obvious. His voice was laden with sorrow when he spoke again.
“This is unbelievable! Is Ian dead? And on the orders of Rex? And the Speaker is behind all these?” he asked, staring sullenly at Lt. Clottey. He wanted to doubt his story, but he could tell the soldier had narrated something that really happened. There isn’t any reason why he would lie. His Vice whom he had handed over power to would not have been with the lieutenant if his story was not true. And he knew Gertrude Mensah to be a woman of integrity. She would be the last person to come before him with this story if it was a lie.
He winced when Lt. Clottey narrated the massacre at the James Town police station. He had not heard about it because he was then on admission at the hospital. And all bad news, as well as anything that had to do with politics was kept away from him because his doctors had reached the conclusion he had to resign as President of Ghana to detach himself from anything that would stress him. But alas, he was hearing about it now.
“Darling, are you okay?” his wife asked him.
“Yes, dear. It is just that everything I have heard right now is a shock to me. First is the fact that somebody would plot to assassinate Gertrude. What for? What wrong has she done? This woman would not hurt even a fly. And then the fact that Adu-Tutu is the brain behind it and recruited Rex Yamoah to do the hatchet job is a shock” he said.
“Take it easy, dear. You know your condition and the doctors’ advice”, the First Lady said. Her husband nodded.
“And who told Adu-Tutu my health condition has got to do with poisoning?” he asked. “I suffer from High blood pressure and Ischemic heart disease otherwise known as Coronary heart disease. It has nothing to do with poisoning” he said.
“Easy dear. Don’t work yourself up”, the First Lady said again. This made him smile. He was really hurt that the Speaker was involved in the plot to assassinate his Vice. If anybody else had named Adu-Tutu as the one behind it, he would have thought the person did not know who he was talking about because as far as he was concerned, he was about one of the finest politicians in the country. In fact, had Gertrude Mensah not accepted to be his running mate, it was Adu-Tutu he had in mind to choose as his Running Mate. Adu-Tutu had been so sly and sleeky in all his underhand dealings that the only person who knew about them was Rex Yamoah and that was only because he used him to either carry out his nefarious activities or cover-up for him. The rest of the country considered him a gentleman but Kruger after carrying out the assignment to kill his wife the previous year saw him as a man more dangerous than a rattle snake, a man without a soul, a heartless character who would frighten even Lucifer. Not even Kruger, seen by most as a brutal character, would have a heart so evil. Adu Tutu was the first person Kruger had ever feared in his life. He was the one who called Kruger at the Sakumono beach demanding to know if they had caught the fleeing Nii Kotey.
“Hmmm! Linda, to think that this was the man I had set my eyes on to choose as a running mate if Gertrude had in the final analysis not accepted to be my running mate. With what he is up to now, it means he would have gotten assassinated so he can take over” President Marfo said.