Jamaica

Chapter 22

"One last question," The woman sporting a glittering afro hair, and dressed in a flowery green and blue native top and blue jeans, pointed her microphone at Mr. Adeleke, the NMC News company boss. She was the only female  among a group of seven journalists, that were given the invited to interview the NMC News manager. And Mr. Adeleke was having a tough time answering their questions, as they had gathered in his office in the early hours of a Friday morning. 

He put up a professional looking attitude, as he answered their questions. And the questions focused on the one story that had made NMC News garner so much public attention making it to become so popular. But NMC's popularity, which it had earned through the Sambo story, was shifting and was beginning to create problems for it.

 Mr. Adeleke wiped his forehead with his handkerchief as he prepared himself to answer the lady's question. He had answered enough questions and decided that the lady's question was going to be the last question he would answer.

"I have work to do now so I will take this last question." He said, as he looked at the lady. The lady cleared her throat and asked,

" The Sambo killings and Sambo Constructions, are they a real threat to the peace loving people of Lagos State?"

It was a question he couldn't answer as he also had his doubts. The killings were real, but he just couldn't see a connection between the people killed and Sambo Constructions. And most of all, he had no idea what Sambo Constructions was. But as he looked at the journalists he knew they wanted answers and he had to give them one. He cleared his throat and wiped the sweat off his forehead again, and said,

"First of all, what is Sambo Constructions? Is it a an ordinary construction company; a group of companies? What is it really and what does it do? You see until we can find the answer to these questions, we will never know to what extent it is a threat to the peace loving people of this state." When the journalists left he heaved a sigh of relief and got back to work.

It had been a rough week for him, and this, due to constant increase in demand for an update of the Sambo story. The demand for an update had started a few weeks after the Alfred assassination. Many magazines and newspaper outlets had sent in requests for updates as they were also being pressured to provide the latest updates surrounding the Sambo killings.

But the updates were not coming in anymore, and this led many to believe that the whole story could in part be made up. Some journalists had  even gone as far as to tag the story fake news. This didn't bother Mr. Adeleke, as he thought it was the work of his enemies planning to bring him down.

What worried him instead, was the amount of letters he had started receiving. And the letters were not from ordinary citizens, but from private individuals whom he believed had ties to people in the Lagos state government. One letter he read got him so worried that he had to call Abisola into his office. The letter started by asking a question,

Who is your source?  Who supplies you the information you put out as news for the general public? The letter then went on to solicit for,  the immediate commencement of  reports surrounding the Sambo killings and Sambo Constructions. A solicitation wasn't bad but on further reading, he was shocked by what he read.

Should there be further delays in updating the story with fresh details, we will consider the story as fake news and will proceed to take legal actions against NMC News for the unrest this news has so far caused to the peace loving people of Lagos State.

Sweat trickled down his forehead and onto the letter. Seeing the sweat made him realize how much of a threat he was facing from the people who had sent him this particular letter. He sighed and brought out his handkerchief from his suit pocket and wiped his forehead and reread the letter over again.