The Devil Wears Okrika

Chapter 2

Dé Nwachukwu patted the young boy on the head as he dropped the jug of palm wine. "Thank you my son"

"Yes sir, Dé John would be outside soon"

The young boy hurried inside the house. There was something intimidating about Dé Nwachukwu, despite the fact that he was quite a smallish man. Maybe it was his piercing eyes or the fact that his mouth never turned upwards, not even when he smiled. And he hardly smiled, especially not this morning when he seemed to be in a bad mood.

Dé Nwachukwu folded both arms on his cane and tapped his foot impatiently. He was in a state of distress. His village was in a state of distress. Three of their daughters had been abused! Raped mercilessly, beaten and given a dishonourable death. Where the gods asleep? Who could be behind such devlish acts?
Dé Nwachukwu sighed and shook his head in dismay. Too many questions had been plaguing him this past month but no answer was forthcoming. Now three families had been thrown into grief and the worst thing was he feared for more families, he feared for the young daughters of Amaife. He feared for his two daughters-

Dé john moved the curtain aside and stepped out. He was a tall man and he and his friend Dé Nwachukwu always cut a contrasting picture as one was tall and the other short. Dé john had his pipe in his mouth. This was his trademark look, he had on a singlet and a wrapper tied round his waist. He sat down on the bench across his friend. He also looked gloomy.

"Dé, I won't greet you good morning because there's nothing good about this morning"

"I agree" Dé Nwachukwu nodded, finally picking up the jug of palm wine and pouring the contents into a cup.

"What I'm wondering is where Pà Kenneth is" Dé john commented, puffing on his tobacco pipe.

"He told me he had a meeting with Bartholomew"

Dé John scoffed,"the pastor? What is he doing running after churches now?"

Dé Nwachukwu sipped from his cup, "apparently a crusade is coming from another state and the pastor plans to host them"

"Is that what we need right now?" Dé John asked in disgust

"Well it appears the gods have forgotten us, so maybe that's what we need" Dé Nwachukwu replied, his voice rising a bit. "we need to call a meeting. Our women are getting scared"

"I can't argue with that, very soon they would all lock themselves indoors" Dé john agreed helping himself to the jug.

"Maybe that's the best thing" Dé Nwachukwu said. Frankly, he was getting worried for his daughters. Especially Amarachi, she was widely regarded as the gem of the village and now more than ever he was worried for her safety. The three girls that had been murdered had two things in common: they were beautiful; they were in their early 20s....

"We need a concrete solution my friend" Dé john brought him back to the present

"Yes I agree...we need to rally our youths"

·.·.·.·.·.·.·
The New Life Ministries team of youth leaders consisted of 5 people. The head was Osi who was the youth pastor, his right hand man was an extremely thin man known as Gregory, the assistant pastor of the youth church and Osi's close friend. Then there was Bukky, she was the official secretary and had the responsibility of editing the monthly editions of the church's 'on fire' magazine. The last was Ovie a.k.a Biggie. Ovie was the treasurer in charge of managing the finances of the youth church. If Gregory was slim, then Ovie was the complete opposite. He was outspoken and lively and Osi personally thought he was fun to be with.

That Sunday, Osi had announced that they had an emergency meeting after the service and so they waited in his office.

"Please I don't have to remind you of the contributions we talked about" Bukky announced settling down into a chair.
She lowered her voice, looking pointedly at Ovie, "concerning Osi's birthday"