.......................Episode 8. .......................
Mrs Osasere Aburime, popularly called Madam Grace had lived in Portugal 15 years prior to the Jennifer incidence. She was famous for trafficking teenage girls from Nigeria across West Africa to Europe. Rumour had it that she had apartments in Cotonou, Accra, Abidjan, Freetown and Bamako. They said she also ran local brothels in Napoli and Malaga.
She had settled a number of girls who had paid up huge amounts of money to her after many years of prostitution. She would use the money to sponsor other girls from Africa to Europe and that was how she made her money. It was rumoured that the Police had been on her trail for over two years but they had not been able to caught her red handed. She had been using some shakers including Efe and Abu to retrieve money from her girls. She was as a matter of fact, running the biggest African Human trafficking syndicate in the City of Lisbon.
Madam Grace had a Permanent Resident permit in Portugal where she had been living for years. She was married to another Edo state born man who was just a statue in her life since she dictated the pace of the marriage and more. They had three daughters and no son. They lived in Baixa ( downtown) area where most of the residents were non European citizens.
Madam Grace also had an African shop where she sold food items from Africa as a cover up for her operations. She also sold Drinks in a small room behind her store where she rented out to people for quick sexxx.
Her cup was getting full. She had rented an apartment for her girls in Lisbon where they lived. According to Jennifer, the apartment where the girls lived was in an area of Lisbon called Belem. It was miles apart from where she lived and only a few of her favourite girls were privileged to know where madam Grace lived; Jennifer was one of them.
Unfortunately for her, Jennifer knew her real names and the address where she lived.
I had started collecting info on her from the moment she confronted me for the first time in Colombo business district.
I had piled up a dossier on her and as it stood, I was going to make money out of it since she was after me.
Over 6 hours after Jose's call, she called him back and begged him to reduce the money. She gave two conditions to us.
She wanted us to reduce the money to 1000 euros which was the original asking price and the second condition was that she must get Jennifer back.
I wasn't that interested in the money but getting Jennifer back was a non-negotiable affair. Jennifer said she wasn't going back and that was where I stood.
We were eagerly waiting for Olokun to strike us down from A small river in a Benin forest of Edo state Nigeria. I had talked some sense into Jennifer and she had understood that fear was the greatest enemy of human mind.
Jose hung the phone and laughed at the amount the woman agreed to pay. I was tempted to go for the money but Jose said we could get much more. He said since the woman had a permit from Portugal, she would be fished out anywhere in Europe if she ran away. He also argued that madam Grace must have had other girls around Europe which meant that she couldn't run down to Africa; A claim Jennifer affirmed. Jose was thinking like a criminal and I began to be wary of him too.
Madam Grace called back and increased to 2000 euros plus Jennifer. Jose proposed 8000 euros minus Jennifer. They continued the argument.
Jose cut off the phone calls every two and half minutes. He told me that it would take the Policia about three minutes to place a trace on any phone call.
When Madam Grace called again for the fifth time, she asked where I was. jose told her that I went down to get a bag for traveling out of the Country and that if she didn't come across the river with the money in the morning, it could be too late. They had settled for 5000 euros Plus Jennifer but I was not going to let her go. Madam Grace would skin Jennifer alive if she got her hand on her again.
We devised a plan on how to get the money.
Jose will drive with two other people who would be waiting in the car some few meters away from the exchange point.
She would naturally demand for Jennifer since she had told us to come with her to the exchange point.
Jose would then tell her that those people in the car were his police friends and that he had not told them about the exchange.
He would threaten to call them if madam refused to hand the money to him.
He had also told madam not to come with his hit squad Efe and Abu. He told madam Grace that he knew all about her and that he would call the deal off if he saw any of them in the area. Madam was told to come with a taxi and not the train. She was also told to come to a busy area where his hit squad, if she managed to bring them along, could not be able to do anything.
At about 11am on December 24, 2005, Jose called Madam and they agreed to meet at the AVENIDA DE LIBERTADE, (The liberty avenue, a 90-meter wide avenue) the busiest avenue in Lisbon Portugal.