Political violence in Nigeria is something else.
I had driven my boss to Warri some days before; my boss has a place in Warri so we were staying at his place in the city. I have never been to Warri before, this was my first time. I have met Chief Ogbe Onokpite on several occasions before because my boss had made me drive him to and fro in the city. On that faithful day, I brought my boss to the hotel, he had told me that we were picking up the Chief as they were supposed to be going to a meeting.
My boss called the Chief on his phone and the Chief stuck his head out his hotel room window and beckoned by boss to come upstairs to meet him. He got out of the car and went into the hotel.
There were only two other cars in the hotel that day, one Toyota Camry and a Mercedes 230, I parked the car next to them and went into the hotel lobby and sat down to wait, there were about five men in the lobby.
Minutes later, Chief Onokpite came down to the hotel lobby about to leave the hotel, he called me to drive him somewhere, he was talking to a man in the lobby and asked to him to join him, as he was doing this he was still walking out to the car, this man refused the offer and the Chief tried to persuade him but he still refused and he was just giving the Chief excuses, that he had been drinking and he was tired, the Chief insisted saying " I am not going far, look I just have flip-flops on, I am just going around the corner to pick up something" The man refused still, making more excuses all this time did not even come out the lobby.
We got into the car and as I turned the ignition and put the car in reverse, just then, a man whom I had seen earlier standing by the gate raised up the barrier at the gate and a jeep drove in very fast and stopped a man in plain clothes jumped out screaming "there is a robbery in progress every body get down, lie down every body, robbery taking place in room 305"
At first I was confused and I thought perhaps the man was a robber, we jump out of the car and lay down as instructed, when I looked around, I saw that the man whom I thought was the gateman was brandishing a gun and so also was two others I had seen earlier inside the hotel lobby. About ten men all dressed in civilian clothes appeared from no where with guns shooting in the air and a lot of police officers rushed into the compound. It became clear to me that they have been waiting around the hotel for the Chief.
The man from the jeep went into the hotel and ordered some men upstairs to the Chief's room saying "go to room 305 finish anybody there hurry" when the men went upstairs, the man from the jeep got on the phone and he was pacing up and down and said several times on the phone "Yes your Excellency" "Yes your Excellency"
He walked back the lobby, at this time some uniformed police were
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