***THE ADVENTURES OF BIMPE***
EPISODE 25
Bimpe turned to Barrister Demba for advice; he nodded his head in approval. She stood up and walked to the stand, if you didn’t know about the case, you would not know she was the defendant being tried. She was given the bible to swear an oath. After which, she was handed over to the prosecutor.
Prosecutor: “How old are you?”
Barrister Demba: “Objection my Lord” he said jumping out of his seat
Judge:”Overruled, Answer the question, but counselor, be more relevant” he said, obviously bored.
Bimpe: “I am twenty two years old” she replied
Prosecutor: “And yet you have had two husbands. And both of them are dead”
Bimpe: “Is there a question, somewhere in there?”
Prosecutor: “Are you a black widow?”
Barrister Demba: “Objection my lord”
Judge: “Sustained. Counselor be advised”
Prosecutor: “Sorry my Lord. Bimpe what was your purpose marrying Chief Bamigboye, when you were originally engaged to his son.”
Bimpe: “Love” she replied simply.
Prosecutor: “Love; was it also love that made you marry Alhaji Dambazzau?”
Bimpe: “I do not think my marriage and the choices I have made is on trial today, so if you have nothing to ask me, plea-se say so. I did not kill my husband”
Prosecutor: “Where were you on the day chief bamigboye, was murdered?”
Bimpe: “I was there at the scene, I saw him die, I saw who sh0t him”
Prosecutor:”Who, if not you”
Bimpe: “Brian, the man I was engaged to, I dumped him because he was after my money, not love.
Prosecutor: “Your money you said, how did you come about the money? You were not born with a silver spoon, you are a college dropout. So tell this distinguished court, how you got so rich”
Barrister Demba:”Objection my Lord, badgering the witness”
Judge: “Sustained, make your question succinct and within the letter and the spirit of the law.
Prosecutor: “What is your line of business?”
Bimpe: “I specialize in information technology as seen by the companies I own such as Cytron and Daminfotech, I am also in the oil sector as repres£nted by Damoil”
Prosecutor: “Before your first marriage, who were you?”
Bimpe: “If I married a rich man, is that a crime? Because, I seem not to un-derstand your questions” she replied.
Actually, Bimpe had called the as-sociates and inti-mated them with the recent development. She told them she was not guilty and was not re-ady to suffer for another person’s crimes. So they had pu-ll-ed their strings and the prosecutor who started the case was pu-ll-ed from the case, leaving another prosecutor to take over the case. This prosecutor was not very smart; he was picking at straws and was ma-king the case perforated.
Prosecutor: “Adebimpe, you are un-der oath, so answer this question truthfully. Did you kill Chief Bamigboye?”
Bimpe: “I did not kill my husband. My life up to this point has been of grace. I have just been lucky, because my two husbands are dead, that does not mean I killed them. I am innocent” she said looking at the faces of the court room. For reasons she could not fathom, she desperately wanted them to believe her.
Prosecutor: “No further questions”
Judge: “Anyone else you want to call to the stand?
Prosecutor: “No your honor” he replied and went back to seat.
Barrister Demba: “I call Mrs. Ashionye to the stand”
Bimpe looked at him and wondered who that was, even Oyinda was asking the same questions, and she was also scared. A woman stood up from the back and began to walk towards the witness stand. Bimpe and Oyinda both recognized the housekeeper.
Barrister Demba: “plea-se Mrs. Ashionye tell this honorable court what you told me”
The housekeeper began to narrate all that went down that fateful day. Then she mentioned Brian as the murderer.
Barrister Demba: “Don’t just take her word for it, I have proof” he pressed the bu-tton, and a video c@m£ on the projector screen. It pla-yed the whole incident as it happened.
Oyinda: “Oh my God” she whispered in defeat.
Barrister: “My lord, with this I am sure I have been able to convince you beyond reasonable doubt that Bimpe, my client is free from any wrong doing,”
Two bailiffs walked to where Oyinda was seated, they handcuffed her and took her away.
Brian was watching the trial on television, expecting Bimpe to be convicted and thrown in jail for the murder he committed, he could walk around freely. From the beginning of the trial, he was disappointed and had lost faith. He was beginning to see that Bimpe could walk, and he was alre-ady putting plans into place.
Brian: “Prison is the safest place for Bimpe. I will not spare you. You caused the death of my father, and you shall join him soon. You shall be his wife not just in life, but in death also. I promise you this”
The court was in uproar, people who had condemned Bimpe were beginning to see it was a case of jealousy that made Oyinda f!nger her as the murderer. The judge gave a 10 minutes recess so that people could become less excited. Dapo Ogunleye was in the courtroom, he looked at the enigma that was Bimpe . He blamed her for the death of his best friend. He looked at her as she sat with her lawyer and decided he would give her a piece of his mind. He left where he was seated and walked up to Bimpe.
Bimpe: “Hello”
Dapo: “You may not have raised the weapon that was used to kill my friend, Chief Bamigboye, but you killed him, and the guilt will be on your conscience forever. You destroyed a once beautiful family, turned them into things they are not.
Bimpe: “I have known Brian and Oyinda since my University days and there is nothing beautiful or sweet about them. Let me tell you a story” She said and narrated how she fell in love with Brian, and how he promised her marriage, but then, when she got pregnant, he abandoned her and told her she had to ab-ort the baby. I did, had complications that resulted in the break in my family. The whole village humiliated me because they found out about the ab-ortion. While she was talking, Dapo had come to a dre-adful conclusion.
Bimpe: “So don’t sit there and tell me I destroyed that family, when they destroyed my life .
Dapo: “What is your mother’s name”
Before Bimpe could reply, the judge c@m£ back into the courtroom, and the court official told the people, that court was back in session. Dapo had no choice but to go back to his and throu-ghout the court session, he watched Bimpe.
Judge: “Having heard from both p@rties, this case is as straightforward as any case can be, I don’t see why we should prolong the issue. I acquit Mrs.Bamigboye of every wrong doing. You are discharged and acquitted” he said. Bimpe turned and embr@ced Barrister Demba. Dapo Ogunleye c@m£ back to where they were seated, he was intent on find out if what he suspected, was factual.
Dapo: “Hello Bimpe”
Bimpe: “I have had an ear full of the piece of your mind, allow me listen to my own mind. Excuse me” she said and turned away from him. Dapo, after standing there decide that he had all the time in the world, to get to know Bimpe better.
Bimpe: “How did you do it?”
Barrister Demba: “Do what?”
Bimpe: “How did you find my housekeeper, and how did you know she saw everything”
Barrister Demba: “I am afraid I didn’t know about her, she approached me and told me her conscience was disturbing her, she saw everything that happened and knows you are chief’s murderer”
Bimpe: “She is a life saver, I have to reward her” she said thoughtfully.
Back at the police station, Oyinda was not able to convince the detectives that she did not plan with her brother, to kill their father. In two hours, an aggressive manhunt commenced, to fish out Brian.. Brian on the other hand began to watch Bimpe’s movements, he was stalking her out.
One morning, Bimpe woke up with a feeling of nostalgia, today was the day that the Lagos fashion week. It was Chief’s project, and she was going to make sure she did him proud. She started her morning rituals with prayers. She had learned some pas-sages of the Quran, she would sit down and began to pray with a prayer bead. After having her shower, she dressed up in navy blue p@n-t trou-sers and a white chiffon, long sleeved shi-t. By the time she was done, she was alre-ady running late. She decided to take a back road that would connect her to the express way, so she could bypas-s the ti-ght traffic jam on the norm al route she would have taken.
She was driving when she noticed that a car had been on her tail since she left the house. She began to panic and thought of who to call, she thought of the as-sociates and was about to dial a number when a bullet whizzed by her ear and shattered the windscreen in front of her.
Question: Who has come for Adebimpe, omo Ilisan? Is it Alhaja Zainab or Brian Bamigboye
EPISODE 26
She kept on driving, keeping her head down as pellets after pellets of bullets sh0t into the car, her entire back windscreen was gone, and the car was filled with broken glas-s. On a normal day, this road was deserted, now during rush hour, there was not a single soul to be seen. Every time, she prayed to God, it was to ask him to help her plans work, no matter how evil. Now she was in dire nee-d of God, she felt guilty to even call the name of God; she knows she had led an unworthy life. Just then, a pas-sage from the bible invaded her mind, she remembered this pas-sage from Sunday school days in the little church Anglican church in Ilisan, which she attended with her foster Father, Ladejo and her siblings. The pas-sage whispered in her heart thus:
“Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool, and though they be red like crimson, they shall be whiter than snow”
She turned back and saw a man was driving the black car tailing her, he had one hand on the steering wheel and the other hand held a gun that was pointed in her direction. To her bewilderment, she realized it was not just one car, they were about three and they had men inside.
Bimpe: “Oh God, I am not worthy to call your name, but I remember the bible said that, as many as would call on the name of God, they shall be saved. Save me, I am filthy, a sinner, a wicked person, I am unforgiving. I know I might die today, death is not the worst that can happen to me, I don’t want to be lost forever, I do not want to go to hell, plea-se forgive me, have mercy on my poor soul, save my soul dear Lord” she said as she cried. Faced with imminent death, her whole life flashed before her eyes, she saw where she should have let go and leave vengeance to God, and she saw her deceitfulness, her connivance, and her wickedness. She bec@m£ broken, and penitent.
Bimpe: “Forgive me dear Lord, forgive me, I did not know better. Have mercy” a bullet whizzed by and grazed her arm, just as another hit one of her tires. The pain sh0t throu-gh her and she lost control of the wheel. She raised her head and saw that in fear she had missed the turn that connect her to the expressway, and the road she was on, ended in a cliff, before she could retake the control of the wheel, another wheel was sh0t, and her car went di-ving down the cliff, to the valley below. As soon as the car made contact with the ground, the back p@rt exploded, Bimpe’s head was on the wheel, blood dr!pp£dfrom the side of her head, and her arm where the bullet t©uçhed.
Brian was in one of the cars, so was Alhaja. Alhaja had s£nt someone to monitor the Bamigboyes house one day, and Brian had caught the person, after beating the person to pulp, the man, throu-gh swollenl-ips, and bleeding gums, he told Brian that he did not come for him, that he was there to monitor Bimpe, on Alhaja’s orders. Brian had told the man that Bimpe had packed out of the mansion, and he knew her new place of residence, but would want to see who s£nt him. The spy took Brian to meet Alhaja and they formed a p@rtnersh!p, they were both fugitives, so they could help each other destroy the one person they both loved to hate. Here they were today, pursuing their common enemy.
Question: would Bimpe ever escape this siege from these two fugitives?