Who is Anisa Haque?

Chapter 7

'Thank God you're here Taju,' I said after we had greeted politely.'I have a problem. I'm being followed.'

'Ah-ah? Again?'

'Yes, imagine! With a tinted car this time. Mercedes, E class, Abuja number plate.'

'It means the person is rich and connected.'

'I thought so too. There's no link to any of my clients. I've checked all my files, archives, nothing. None of my clients have that car.'

'Don't worry. We'll find out in just a few minutes. He reached into his back pack and pulled out a laptop.

Taju disappeared behind the screen, humming instructions to himself inaudibly and I felt the load on my shoulder drop in half. I was certain I had called the right person.

Taju and I kept in touch after that first conference, much to my boyfriend Ibrahim's disapproval. I had been looking for a PI friend in Abuja to share a healthy working relationship with (compare notes, gossip and maybe even pass off the cases that I didn't want to take) and despite his awkwardness and lack of a social life, I soon realised that I had hit the jackpot with Taju.

He is what I like to call a cyber PI. He uses his knowledge of computer science and software engineering to good use.

He creates all sorts of apps and programs and the best part, he customizes these apps to suit local needs.

For my birthday last year he made me the coolest remote control app for my room so that I can control nearly every electronic in my room by clicking on my iPad. Mundane tasks like getting up to turn on the lights, TV, decoder, turning the water heater on and adjusting the AC temperature were completely eliminated leaving me an extra 5 minutes everyday to catch up on celebrity gossip and stalk instagram. Awesome gift!

Taju used to work at the Vehicle Inspection Office (VIO) but he had a horrible boss and mean colleagues who had turned him into an IT slave. They took advantage of his passion for his job and unloaded EVERYTHING on him.

The first day I visited Taju at the VIO he was nearly in tears. A colleague had passed on a project to Taju who already had his plate full and so *he* was in trouble for not doing *her* work while evil colleague sat at her computer playing Zuma's Revenge!

So with my encouragement, he quit last year and opened his own mobile phone retail and maintenance store at Banex plaza, which of course is just a cover business for his PI and app making services.

As he cleared out his desk, he made sure he took all the databases he had created for them with him, including the one that collated profiles of every car owner licensed in the country. So you see why I had to call him right?

'Okay,' he resurfaced. 'I've got it. What's the license number?'

'RBC 38 AA,' I had been obsessing over the number for hours, it was engraved in my brain like an annoying ad jingle.

'Just a moment...Got it!'

'You do?' I stopped pacing and sat on the couch beside him.

'Its a Mercedes E280 2014, chassis number...'

'Taju, I don't need the chassis number, who does it belong to?'

'Ok, sorry, sorry. Sorry. It's signed to - oh my God!'

'WHO?'

'Alhaji Baba Amana,' he said hysterically.

'Baba Amana? That can't be right.' I said, grabbing the laptop and scrolling down the page to see for myself. 'It can't be *the* Baba Amana. That's not possible.'

But there it was, in a simple Helvetica font, his name, date of birth and even a passport photograph, which I recognized was of a stout pot bellied man that appears regularly on newpapers and gossip blogs.

'But it says "Amana Group" on his profile. It's him.'

I looked at Taju disbelievingly but he seemed convinced.

'This is a very accurate database, Anisa. I updated it just yesterday. If it says Baba Amana, it belongs to Baba Amana.'

I nodded, but I was now even more confused than ever.

'So,' Taju shut his laptop close. 'What does the second richest man in Africa want from you.'

I had no idea.