Ex Officio (#3 EX TRILOGY)

Chapter 17

Ghanaians all over the country were both shattered and confused to hear about the death of the Vice President on the news. Later that evening, the media buzzed with panel discussions and phone-ins about this incident and what it meant for the nation. The worst part of the news was that the entire family of Nana Asafo Agyei Woode had all been mysteriously wiped out (starting with their daughter months earlier) with no possible explanation by the government or the national police. Most Ghanaians were accusing the government of the United Arab Emirates for conspiring against their nation by assassinating their statesman and failing to present any evidence that justified them as not guilty of the murder. At 7:45pm the same day, the guards at the Jubilee House were already calling in reinforcement to help stabilize the crowd that had marched several kilometres across the city to cry out to the President about the loss of his Vice and his family and its effects on the nation.

"It saddens my heart to hear that my able companion in the service of this nation met such an untimely death in a foreign country," the President had said in the afternoon in a pre-recorded broadcast on national television from the presidency. "I give the citizens of this nation my word that I will not stop until I have fished out the murderer who did this to our beloved country. Citizens of Ghana, in this moment of grief, please remain calm. The future of this nation is secured and the economy shall see a new day, taking inspiration from the great sacrifices of our late Vice President in that sector of development and what his demise means to our future. May his soul rest in perfect peace."

The mob was more infuriated by something worse than a late nation's address from the President of the nation. There was no mention of an explanation to why the Vice President had appeared to have returned to the country from a sick leave not long ago, and the inconsistency in the recent news disputing this by placing his death days before his return to Ghana. Some social media extremists had started spreading the hoax that the government had taken to black magic and was secretly sacrificing important people while replacing them with doppelgangers to deceive the republic.

It was not long until another shocking video interrupted transmission on all TV networks, even going live on Facebook and YouTube to reveal a truth that aggravated the confusion and despair in the country.

The video which was signed "From the Real People, with love #Realers" accused the presidency of engaging in a criminal and murderous deal with a syndicate that was under the guise of a very reputable mogul in Ghana said to be the answer to the boost in the nation's economy. The video also revealed that this mogul was involved in bioengineering and deception, using a "dating app" to deceive people to opt for perfect lovers who were actually lifeless "dolls", and later blaming disappearances of some app users on an infiltration by a criminal organization called Ex Gratia. As soon as a rhetorical question at the end of the video pointed to the possibility of the Vice President's recent public appearance being a sample of the conspiracy theory with the dating company meant to hide the assassination of the president by presenting a lifelike lie to Ghanaians, all hell broke loose.

"What kind of nation is this?" a concerned and agitated member of the opposition party cried out on a live interview on camera outside the gates of the Jubilee House during the riot. "What kind of barbarism are we seeing? Is this government now aligning with the Illuminati or what? If this conspiracy theory is really true, then the President should be ready for a coup!"

This party devotee was nabbed by the military at the site and roughly thrown into a truck before he could complete the interview. The others in the crowd were momentarily shaken because one of their foot soldiers had been arrested, but they did not stop chanting "Conspiracy! Conspiracy!" for hours, dressed in black and red clothes, carrying placards and blowing loud vuvuzelas. The roads ended up being blocked and the chaos kept getting worse. This persuaded the presidency to release yet another broadcast calling the group responsible for the stir 'charlatans', 'ruthless vandals' and 'hungry wolves' bent on deceiving the Ghanaians and bringing dissension and turmoil in the wake of the Vice President's death.