Who Killed Chike

One of the best part of growing up is your peers, these are people that make up your life, they make you and they mean so much to you. You do so many things together and above all, you dream alike. I was the boys girl, I played with them and I did everything they did and even better than so many of them.

Did you play under the rain growing up?

Our neighbourhood was not a big one and the setting was naturally crime free because everyone knew everyone, it was like one big happy family.

My best friend was Chike, we grew up side by side each other though he was slightly older but two months isn't a huge difference.

One of my fondest memories was playing football under the rain, we called it ballieu. It was really fun around all of them.

We all had life ambitions and mine was to one day become a medical doctor and I gave it my best chase.

And Chike was there all along but something happened along the line, something that changed our directions as friends.

The day we passed out from service was the last day we saw each other though we spent weeks together preparing ourselves for the separation because he was traveling far away. I had wanted him to leave at least a day or two after but his elder brother already bought his ticket and there was no way he could change it. I never had the chance to say bye. However, he was still around in my heart.

Have you ever felt this way for someone?

Chike and I were just friends and nothing attached to it. Infact he knew my boyfriend and i accepted him at his own recommendation.

He was the only guy I trusted with everything about a woman, I don't know how to say this but we lived in the same room throughout our days in school.

When I got sick before our graduation, he was there for me, he skipped class just to nurse me, we were simply siblings from different mothers.

I know that at a time, I felt otherwise because looking at him, he was just the right guy for me.

I missed him and what pained me most was that we never kept in touch because I actually moved to the capital two weeks after we left camp.

Then couple of years later, the highest bidder called.

When I look at myself I wonder how time fly, little Naomi of yesterday is getting married; I can't but give God the glory because all my life I had always prayed to marry my soul mate so the moment Barry showed up, i knew that he was the one. I didn't need anyone to advice me on what to do because my heart yearned for him and I found him.

Do you know what it means to fall in love?

He was rich and powerful, his peers were all behind him and he commanded respect in the society, elders bow to him as a mark of respect.

Barry is every woman's dream, it's not that women are materialistic in nature but tell me who will taste honey and spit it out.

The joy of every parent is knowing that the daughter they are giving to a man for marriage would be protected and taken good care of.

One of the basic things a woman needs before settling down with a man is the assurance that no storm is too strong to destroy the walls she will build.

Every woman wants happiness and her wedding day is the fulfilment of the gospel which states that God made them one.

Because he who finds wife, finds favor in God. So as far as I can say, I made Barry whole because in me he saw the foundation of the family he would build.

So my traditional marriage was nothing but a carnival because he organised it to suit my taste and truly it was an act of respect by a wonderful man who took my breath away.

Though I was so happy but the absence of Chike on that special day cut my joy but there is always a consolation.

Life with Barry is sweet and he provides all the things a woman can ever desire in a husband for me. All I can say is that we are happily married but four months after our wedding, I got a surprise of a lifetime. Chike called me and I was like oh my God after all these years? I knew that this day must come and had waited for it all my life.

Have you met an old friend and lost breath?

We arranged to meet and sitting next to Chike after all these years brought back memories only tears could commute.

When I finally put myself together, we talked and talked and talked. Infact honestly I didn't want to go home to Barry.

I wanted to spend as much time as I could with him but it wasn't possible so we parted after that meeting and he assured me that we will never loose touch again.

Who on earth would want to loose touch with such an important guy like him? I have missed him more than words can describe.

You know he told me that he was arrested just after one week of arriving in Germany and he spent six years in jail that was why he couldn't communicate with me.

That was part of his own story because he made it aswell and was back home to execute couple of projects.

I told Barry everything about Chike and now that we finally reconnected I told him too and he knew each time we met.

He never questioned me about his numerous calls but he objected when I told him that Chike wanted me to handle the construction of his hotel.

I didn't understand his reason because his stand was CAPITAL NO.

Chike was in South Africa to round up a business, he called me around 8am and informed me to go to his office and pick up the cheque because I didn't tell him about Barry's stand yet hoping that he might change his mind since the contract was the biggest I've been awarded as a civil engineer. But around 12pm, I got a call that changed my life forever.

Have you ever felt that a part of you is dead?

They followed him from his residence and killed him right in the middle of the road as he wanted to come out from his car.

What did he do to whoever that shot him? Nine bullets showed that the person never wanted him to survive.

I didn't know how to go about it as I looked forward that he would give me a call and tell me that he was fine.

Nobody was held for his death and the CCTV captured nothing, eyewitnesses only saw a boy but didn't hear any sound of gun until Chike dropped to the ground.

The Police said that it was an assassination by professionals and investigation was going on.

The death of a loved one lives everyone behind crippled but if there is anyone totally broken by Chika's death then it's me.

I cried everyday, it was hard for me to hold my tears. Barry even tried to console me because he was the closest person to me.

My Chike is gone and I entered into covenant with God; fish out the perpetrators of this crime and I shall devote my life to your service.

Chike's funeral was the worst event I have attended as a human but like the Priest said during the funeral mass; nothing is hidden under the sun and whoever that is responsible for his death would never go unpunished.That was the only consolation I had but i tried to move on as days turned months and two years flew like butterfly.

Is there any other way to forget the death of a loved one?

When a loved one dies, you don't want to forget them, but remember that they wouldn't want you to stop living a happy life because of them.

I found strength with the fact that Chike was in a better place but forgetting him was hard for me and that got Barry pissed off.

Why can't I mourn him as my soul deaires even if he wasn't related to me, why is it that at the mention of his name he frowns? I kept asking myself.

Barry got so mad at me in one occasion because I spiced up the chicken BBQ with more chilli and while shouting at me, he said something.

Believe me, I know a lot about my husband but never knew that he once lived in South Africa. He spoke three foreign languages but I never knew that he spoke zulu.

You see, he told me that he could kill me and nothing will happen and that opened up my head because there are thing I didn't know about him.

After few days, I put myself together and confronted him because I saw the demon in him and I wanted to know one thing.

Barry who killed Chike?

(Imagine the rest of the story)