17 CHAPTER SEVENTEEN THE UNUSUAL MEETING

That night, the Mayor could not sleep because he watched Tolu on the TV, the first thing that took sleep away from his brows is the name Tolu mentioned to be her original name, the name struck him like a bomb! And the second thing that wrestled sleep away from him was the rate people began to vote for her returns for the following night. The social medias were literally overloaded, before daybreak over ten million people forced themselves to vote in the over crowded pages of the show's social medias. This greatly worried the Mayor because this means Tolu is popular with the masses.

However, he believed that many people in the city will not watch her the following night, because that night is his greatest campaign night, but to his dismay, the campaign ground saw scanty crowd, for most men were glued to their TV set, they wanted to hear Tolu's story.

He left the campaign ground scared and sad, and the moment he entered into his car he was shocked to meet his driver glued to the radio station which is a sister station of the TV station owned by Sir Boripe media groups in his car

At that moment their news was running, and the news caster in a sarcastic manner talked about his failed campaign, she said, "Different stroke for different folks, today the two contestants for the Mayor's office of this city are on parade with results that countered each other.

The incumbent's campaign was empty of people because the people stayed at home to watch his contender on the MTC show that is presently running on the popular nightly celebrity show on SR TV station"

This was all the Mayor could stomach before he shouted, "Switch off that rubbish you are listening to in my car and if i catch you again listening to such nonsense I will sack you on the spot, fool!" The driver quickly switched off the radio and jumped down to collect the folder in his hand, while at the same time he was seriously apologising to him.

However, Tolu received a glowing welcome at the station because her case boosted the follower ship of the programme the way no other celebrity has done before.

The presenter opened the show with a complement based on the voting done to invite her back for the programme, he said, "I must admit that you are truly a big celebrity, i have been anchoring this programme for more than two decades and in all those years nobody attracted the kind of votes that brought you back this night; really you are a news that the whole world wants to listen to, you even attracted more votes from across the continent than from the nation. Do you know what this says about you? Tolu answered and said no. The presenter said you are popular enough to win the Governorship election with the way people are clamouring for you" To this Tolu replied, "Thank you for such complement sir and I am grateful to all the people out there across this nation and the entire continent for your interest in the story of my life, i only hope you will still love me when i finish my story.

With this, the Presenter said, "I hope so too, so let us not waste time, let us move straightforward into your story by you telling us how you met Richie.

Tolu started her story saying, it always make me so sad whenever I remembered that day, it was a day I wish now that it never occurred in my life.

If you followed the court sessions of my case with him, you will remembered that Sir Boripe the man with great loving heart told a story of how his diamond case was snatched from him at the train station, and how some policemen and other people that were around helped him to pursue the criminal who snatched his diamond case.

That very day was the day my involvement with Richie started, though I have been seeing him afar off before then, for he usually parked his car on my street while he waited for his then girlfriend who happened to be a daughter of our rich neighbour, but who i learnt later from him that her father did not approved their relationship based on the fact that he was from a poor background.

However, on this particular day, he did not park his car at the usual place that he used to park it, he parked so close to a bend that lead into our street, whereas he used to park so close to our house before, but we could still see him clearly from our own balcony. The reason for this I later learned from him that his girlfriend complained to him that she was not comfortable of him parking too close to our house

The presenter cuts in now with a question, "When you say we, does that mean you were not alone and were you watching him and why?

Tolu smiled and said, " To be truthful, no lady will see him and not watch him because he was too handsome and cute for us to pretend he was not drawing our attention, so yes we were watching him; in fact we were talking about him"

The presenter asked, "You and who were talking about him and what were you saying about him?"

Tolu answered, "Actually my childhood friend Bianca who lived in the next neighbourhood was with me, before Richie arrived we were talking about a particular job opportunity that she missed, but the moment Richie parked his car and came out to stand beside it and Bianca set her eyes on him she abandoned what we were discussing and with glee pointed him out to me because I had my back turned to the place where he parked his car.

Naturally, Bianca was a flirt and she could not be still and calm when she sees any nearly handsome guy, so when she set her eyes on Richie that looked like Adonis there was definitely no other topic she would entertained again, she ecstatically rambled about how she would do anything to go out with Richie. But to divert her attention from him I told her that Richie would not go out with her kind because his type would only go for high class societal ladies.

The presenter stopped her and asked, " Tolu, I want to ask you a question before you will proceed further and I want you to answer me truthfully, were you attracted to him yourself at that point or not"

Tolu answered and said, "Sir I started my story saying that, did you not listen to me when I said no lady will see him and not look at him? But the only difference between me and my friend was that I did not fantasised about going out with him because I believed he was seriously above my league!

To move forward the presenter said, "But you are a beauty yourself no guy will set eyes on you and be able to concentrate on any other thing, was he at any time aware that you were looking at him?" Tolu answered and said, "I don't think so, because I am not the type that exposed myself to roving eyes of men for I am a shy person. More so, my mother always told me that it was a great vanity for a lady to expose herself in a cheap manner to a man for unnecessary attention; because of this, though I used to truthfully admire him but I did not allow him to notice me."

How now were you connected, "The presenter asked"

What connected us happened so suddenly as we were talking about him, while we were talking about him, a guy ran out from the bend like a whirlwind, he dressed completely in the same way as he dressed from head to toe."

"What do you mean by him dressing completely like him? "The presenter asked Tolu and she answered, "I mean he wore the same dress and the same shoes, and he even had the same build and complexion as him, it was a coincidence that was too baffling for anybody looking at the scene to believe.

That is serious!" What now happened? " Tolu said, "You know he was standing so close to the bend expecting his girlfriend, he looked at his wristwatch and moved as if he was displeased that the girlfriend was late in coming. It was as he moved that this other guy came out of the bend like a lightening and they collided on each other. The impact was so much that the two of them fell down apart on the road.

This thing happened like in a flash but I saw all that happened because we were focused on him. The guy who bumped on him carried a case in his hand which fell off as they collided and spun under his car. But to my surprise, the guy got up and ran into an adjoining street without taken the case."

That is interesting, he ran away without the case that fell off from his hand, what now happened? "The presenter asked?"

Sir, all these things happened so fast that one would not believe the person we were admiring in some seconds ago will in the next seconds be a victim of jungle justice! The other guy ran away, but he was still on the floor stung and thinking what happened, he did not even see the face of the guy nor knew that he carried a case, but I knew the guy very well, he was a popular hardened guy living in my friend's street. Nobody knew what he does for a living, but everybody knew him as a guy that lived a life larger than life and he was feared greatly in the environment.

As Richie tried to get up from the road, some guys rushed out from the bend and descended on him like swarms of angry bees, they began to beat him like he should die. And as they were beating him they were shouting thief thief, some were asking him where is the case?

That was a terrible jungle justice, The presenter cuts in" He further added, "I don't know what we can do about this barbaric attitude of our people, every time I hear things like this my blood usually boiled over because anybody can be a victim of such brutal injustice."

Tolu said, "Sir it is not about anybody that can be a victim in the future if we do not stop this issue of jungle justice in our society, it is more about how many innocent people that have been lynched without justice, that would have been the case of Richie on the day that this event drew me into his life.

But Sir Boripe said in the court that some policemen were there too, where were they when this happened? "The presenter asked"

Tolu answered and said, "Those policemen came late because they were not as young as these young men who pursued the thief so closely, by the time they came Richie was covered in blood. Even when they came they had herculean task taking him away from the guys.

The guys only stopped punching him when I rushed to the place shouting " He is not the thief, he is not the thief" On hearing this, they wanted to pounce on me, but more policemen arrived just then with Sir Boripe who owned the diamond case and they were able to stop them from beating me.

That was a great risk you took, why did you as a lady do it? "The presenter asked"

Honestly, I did not know why I did it, I just found myself running to the scene with my friend Bianca warning me not to go and get myself hurt. However, when they all calmed down and I explained to them all that I saw, it was then terror took hold of my soul."

Why is that, "The presenter asked" Tolu said, "The terror arose because i said too much in my bid to save him i was not conscious of what I told the police when I was trying to save him from been lynched, I told the policemen that I knew the real culprit and where he lived. Then the police insisted I must take them there, that was when I came to my senses, I knew I was courting trouble because the guy in question was known to be a hardened criminal, he was popularly called Rugged."

The presenter said, "My oh my, I have heard so much about that guy, truly you should be terrified! What then happened, did the police force you to lead them to his house?

"No, when i told them that the guy would kill me if he knew i was the one who lead them to him the police agreed that I should described him and his address and I did, they went there, caught him while he was trying to burn the cloth he wore at the back of his house. But one thing I did not know was that his men were among the guys that were beating Richie and they marked me for death for pointing him out to save Richie"

That is Scarry! No wonder you said you wish that day never happened, what a way to get involved in a person's life! "The presenter said"