The money spirit I
On their way back from the football field, chidi told his friend Uche about a lucrative job opportunity that he might be interested in, since he was always complaining about being broke. As expected, uche asked what the job was all about but chidi merely told him that it was a quick job, and all he has to do was accept the offer without asking questions.
Uche had known that his friends had always engaged in illegal activity just to make quick money. He knew the reason why chidi refused to reveal the job details. He was afraid that he would back out if it turns out to be a dangerous job.
Seeing the worried look on his face, chidi had to open up to him. He would still get to know about it soon by the way.
The job was all about oil bunkering!
One of the members of the gang received information of a route that lead to an underground oil storage facility at a remote village some kilometers away from their community. The boys had already started to organize oil equipment and trucks for drilling and transportation.
Chidi informed uche that their job was to fill the big oil tankers and move them safely to a given destination, after which they would be rewarded handsomely.
He assured uche that even though it was a risky job, they would be working for some corrupt top officials in government who would guarantee their safety since the big men had more to lose if the security agency gets to know about it. So, the operation had already been carefully planned and there was absolutely nothing to worry about.
Uche was now convinced that this was a good deal. He had earlier thought that chidi and the other boys were planning a robbery. But oil mining was a cool racket that comes with a lot of money and he needed the money. He thought about the beautiful things he woukd do for his mom and sister.
His mother never liked his friends since she never knew which business they were engaged in, neither were they students. She had pleaded with him not to threaten to kill his father again as this was considered an abomination, according to their culture. Uche hissed at his mother and asked her if it was a good thing in their culture for a man to always hit his wife. This question made his mother angry and she told uche to forget all about that. She only wanted him to listen to what she was telling him now. She screamed at him and accused his never-do-well friends for being responsible for his bad behavior towards his father.
"You are the first son of your father uche, and you should make him proud. Why don't you go work as an apprentice for your father's friend who is a big trader at main market. After serving him for three to four years, he would give you a capital for you to start up your own business. That's what a responsible young man would do if he couldn't go to the university". His mother pleaded.
Uche was tired of listening to this dry talk from his mother. He was almost 25 years old, he couldn't afford wasting another five years of his life serving under a master. He thought he was bigger than that sh*t. He wanted big money. Quick, easy, big money.
Two days later, uche and chidi met the other boys to discuss more on how to pull the job. Uche saw that some of the boys were also childhood friends and most of the other faces were familiar. This made him relax.
They got down to the dirty job almost immediately at the oil trenches. Some of the boys even had prior experience and this made it easier for th others to learn. Before the end of the week, they had already filled five oil trucks and uche had made so much money that he had never seen in his entire life.
Unfortunately, the job didn't last long. Before the month ended, the government got wind of the criminal activity going on at the oil site and armed forces were sent to seal and guard the facility. Well, this was expected to happen since the mining had been taking place at a far away community and oil trucks were impossible to conceal when travelling through such long distances. So, the villagers in the surrounding communities kept talking about it and they continued to talk till the authorities got to know about it.
However, before the fraudulent activity came to an abrupt end, uche and his friends had almost made a million naira each, in less then four weeks.
Well, free money is always sweet and easy to squander. One who never worked for it spends it recklessly in the hope that they would continue to multiply magically from the source.
Although, uche had bought alot of food for his family and even gave out more money to his mother and sister. However, most of the money were spent at the bars and brothels in the neighbourhood. " A man had just one life to live and he should enjoy it to the fullest as tomorrow maybe too late".
In less than two months, they cleared all the money they made from the oil racket. Their eyes also clear and they realised how stupid they have been with money.
Soon, they began to make plans to pull another illegal mining racket. After alll, they lived in the oil-rich south of the country.
"Anything for the money".
To be continued.......
I was going the 'Ask the f you have a crush on any Chidi and Uche then I realised it's a continuation/spin-off from the other story. Hahaha