Hundreds of men had gathered on the road and in between the cars parked in front of Peace Lodge, waving shotguns and machetes. Some of them had liberated campaign posters of the deceased Douglas from walls and were holding them above their heads. Together they chanted a chorus in Yoruba, proclaiming that ‘They killed our governor and we kept quiet; now that they have tried to kill another, we will not let it happen. We will kill their entire family including their dogs and cattle.’
Hours before, a police van had charged the crowd and forced its way through the thugs to make it to the gate. Afterwards, word spread that the van had brought Ojo back to Peace Lodge. The party’s new candidate had indeed escaped the assassination plot. Police officers and soldiers did little to control the crowd; aside from a semicircle in front of the gate where the press had set up their cameras and military personnel behind them were holding people back.
The gate opened just enough for a man to squeeze through sideways. He surveyed the crowd, then tucked his head into the crack and spoke to people waiting inside the compound. The gates opened.
The crowd cheered at the sight of Otunba and Chief Ojo, escorted by a dozen other recognisable politicians and a dozen armed men; police and thugs.
Otunba held his hands up to silence the crowd, and like a school principal in front of his assembly, the multitude quietened. Otunba addressed them loudly, pointing for emphasis.
‘All those posters of Douglas, put them down. We are not going to vote for a dead candidate. They have killed him, but our new candidate is still alive.’
He held Ojo’s hand up and the crowd cheered again.
The press adjusted their cameras and held their microphones in Otunba’s direction.
‘Put away those weapons. People are looking at us. And you, pressmen and women, make sure you record our supporters. See how many there are. Make sure you capture them. I do not want to see any poster of our late brother, Douglas. We have not printed posters of our new candidate, but you can take his pictures now and we will use your papers tomorrow as our posters.’
The crowd cheered.
Otunba took the microphone, scanned the crowd, then he cleared his throat and began.
‘My fellow sons and daughters of Lagos, what kind of people attempt to kill two gubernatorial candidates in two days?’
Reporters jostled for space in front of Ambrose. He was standing outside his gate, flanked by elderly members of his party. Babalola watched from behind a window in an upstairs room - he couldn’t hear what was being said, but the script had been agreed amongst the party inner caucus, as Ambrose called his most trusted colleagues.
As he spoke, gesticulating wildly, Ambrose’s face was a mixture of anger and frustration, shots of saliva spraying from his mouth.
‘Enough is enough. We cannot allow these people to turn Lagos state into a bloody battlefield because of their greed or lust for power. Are these the kind of people asking for your votes? People who are killing each other just to become governor? If they can kill their own brothers, what would they do to you if elected? Yesterday, a plane crash, today, an assassination attempt. When would it stop? Who is next on their hit list? Our own candidate? Me? You, the electorate? They want to turn Lagos into war zone.’
A reporter held her voice recorder up to Ambrose. ‘Otunba Balogun Oluawo has gone on record to accuse your party of being behind the murder of Chief Douglas and the attempted assassination of his son-in-law and new party candidate, Chief Olabisi Ojo…’
‘And I am going on record to tell you that we are suing him for defamation today-today. We have instructed our lawyers. I am their victim. You are their victim. We are all their victims; victims of their lust for power. And we will not rest until we expose their faces. In fact, Dr Babalola has declared that the very first thing he will do once he’s in office is to direct the police to carry out a proper investigation and get to the bottom of these dastardly acts and expose the faces of those responsible. We will not let them get away with turning Lagos into a bloodbath.’