The rain knew no stopping. It was still pouring down furiously. Occasionally, the clouds roared above and lightning sparkled the earth for a second or two. Rt. Hon. Kwesi Adu-Tutu quickly quietly analysed the situation.
“So the Vice-President is with the President yet the President called me to say he was backing my decision to go after her, supporting my claim that she had poisoned him hence his health condition to get him out of power so she could take over, which of course, is a lie. And the President asked me to come over for his resignation speech in which he says he has also written that the Vice-President had acted criminally and is on the run so cannot replace him, making me automatically the next President of Ghana” the Speaker said quietly to himself.
He began to hear alarm bells ring in his head. He recognized immediately that he had just been about to walk into a trap set for him by no other person than the President himself. It also meant he had been found out; the President had discovered what he had been up to! This was the end of the road for him.
The gates had been opened but he did not drive through. He was sure that over at the Presidency, soldiers were waiting for him to turn up so they arrested him.
“You may drive through, sir” the Security man was telling him. It was he who had saved him; had he not mentioned that the Vice-President had just driven through to see the President and was obviously still with him, he would have walked into the trap. He was about to reach into his wallet for money for the security man for hinting him about the Vice-President when he saw the headlight of a vehicle approaching the main gate from the estate. He could tell the car was coming at a neck breaking speed. The alarm bells began to toll again in his head. Quickly, he reversed the car, stopped, turned to face the opposite direction where he had come from and sped off.
“Bang! Bang! Bang!” came the sound of gunfire as he fled. He needed nobody to tell him it was the sound of gunshots. In spite of himself, he smiled; his vehicle was an armoured one (bullet proof) so the shots being directed at him by whoever was pursuing him was the least of his concerns. He pressed his foot harder on the accelerator. The Land Cruiser V8 zoomed through the night at a ferocious speed as bullets whizzed past it and lodged into threes and signboards. Others hit it and fell off.
In his rear view mirror, he could tell the car that had been speeding up had gone through the man gate.
“They are after me!” he said as he pressed the accelerator even harder. The V-8 lunged forward menacingly, increasing its speed. Not even the rain could slow it down.
“He’s getting away!” Lt Badoo in the other car said as he too stepped harder on the accelerator pedal. Lt. Clottey, despite the excruciating pain in his right shoulder, held the Schmeisser SLP-9 semiautomatic pistol in his right hand through the window and fired severally at the fleeing V8. But he and Lt. Badoo soon realized their vehicle was no match for the V8 which vanished out of sight. Lt. Badoo slowed down and stopped the car. Then he turned round and drove back to the gate. The security man emerged from the shelter of his security post to stop them. Lt. Badoo drove off the road and parked. Then he got out, stepping out in the rain and dashed into the security post. The security man followed him. There were two other security men there.
“Who was that driver who turned his car and drove away so fast?” he asked the security man.
“It’s the Speaker, boss. I don’t understand why he turned and drove away so fast. I told him the Vice-President just went through so I am sure they are waiting for him at the meeting. I then opened the gate for him to go through but he did not. Instead, he turned the car and drove away so fast when he saw your car approaching. I am even confused”, the security man said.
Lt. Badoo felt like smashing his fist against his jaw. His colleague, Lt. Clottey had been right. While they were waiting with the President for the Speaker to turn up, he (Lt. Clottey) suddenly said he fears the security man at the main gate will tell the Speaker the Vice-President was with the President and thus alert him he was walking into a trap.
“That security man lacked discipline. He talks too much. He may tell the Speaker Madam Vice-President is here, inadvertently tipping him off,” Lt. Clottey had said. A call was immediately placed to the security men at the main gate to warn them against telling the Speaker when he arrived there that the President was with the Vice-President. However, the call could not go through because the phone lines were down. Lt. Clottey had suggested him and his colleague dash down to the main gate to alert the security men. They had thus dashed out of the President’s residence, got into their car and sped towards the main gate. They were almost there when they saw the headlights of another car at the security gate.
“I am sure it is him!” Lt. Badoo had said.
“Yeah!” Lt. Clottey replied.
“Seems we are too late! He is reversing his car. They have tipped him off!” Lt. Badoo observed.
“Yeah! Let’s go after him. Fast!” Lt. Clottey said as Lt. Badoo handed his pistol to him. Victor Clottey took it, cocked it and brought his window down, and began to shoot at the Speakers’ vehicle.