THE LAST GENERATION

THE LAST GENERATION A Novel of Blood, Betrayal, Prison and Justice

Some crimes are committed in darkness. Some are committed in broad daylight, inside courtrooms, behind government offices and within the walls of institutions built to uphold justice.

And sometimes, the people who are supposed to protect the law are the very people making sure it never works.

CHAPTER ONE The Last Photograph

The first time Daniel Adeyemi was accused of stealing government property, he was carrying a bag of oranges home for his son.

It was a Friday evening in October, and the rain had started before he left the government warehouse. He had wrapped the oranges in an old newspaper and placed them inside his brown leather bag to prevent them from getting wet.

His son, Rock, was three years old.

Rock had been asking for oranges for almost a week.

Daniel had promised to buy them when he received his salary, but his salary had been delayed twice. That afternoon, a colleague had given him a small amount of money he owed him, and Daniel had decided that his son would not have to wait another week.

He was not a wealthy man. He was not even comfortable.

He and his wife, Ruth, lived in a two-bedroom rented apartment in a neighbourhood called Old Market, on the outskirts of Bellford, a fictional industrial city in the Republic of Belland.

The apartment had a leaking roof, a broken kitchen window and a landlord who believed that a tenant's financial difficulties were a personal insult.

Daniel worked as a senior inventory clerk at the Bellford Government Construction Depot. His job was to receive equipment, record deliveries, inspect stock and prepare movement documents whenever materials were transferred to government projects.

He had worked there for eleven years.

His colleagues trusted him because he was careful with paperwork. His supervisors liked him because he rarely complained. His wife trusted him because he had never brought home money he could not explain.

He was the kind of man who believed that if he worked hard, paid his bills and minded his business, life would eventually reward him.

That belief was about to cost him everything.

When he arrived home, Rock was sitting on the floor beside a broken plastic truck.

"Daddy!"

Daniel barely closed the door before the boy ran towards him.

"Where is my champion?"

Rock lifted both hands.

"Carry me!"

Daniel dropped his bag and lifted him.

"Have you been troubling your mother?"

"No."

Ruth, who was preparing dinner, laughed from the kitchen.

"Ask him again. He broke the cup I bought last week."

Rock immediately buried his face in his father's shoulder.

Daniel pretended to be angry.

"Ah! You broke Mummy's cup?"

"No."

"Who broke it?"

Rock pointed at the kitchen.

"Mummy."

Daniel laughed so loudly that Ruth threw a dishcloth at him.

For a few minutes, the house was happy.

Nobody knew that the following week would be the last time Daniel would sleep in his own bed.

The trouble at the depot had started six weeks earlier.

A government contractor named Bamidele Sanni had been awarded a contract to supply electrical equipment for a new public hospital.

The contract was worth several million in local currency.

The depot received the equipment, recorded it and stored it temporarily before transferring it to the construction site.

Daniel was responsible for checking the quantities.

When the first delivery arrived, he noticed that the invoice listed 240 industrial electrical units, but the truck contained only 180.

He informed his supervisor, Mr. Peter Gambo.

Gambo told him to sign the delivery note and correct the discrepancy later.

Daniel refused.

"Sir, I cannot sign for something we did not receive."

Gambo stared at him.

"Do you know who awarded this contract?"

"I know, sir."

"Do you know who owns the company?"

"I have seen the company name."

"Then you should understand that there are certain things you don't need to make difficult."

Daniel remained quiet.

Gambo lowered his voice.

"Sign the document. The remaining goods will come."

Daniel did not sign.

Two days later, another delivery arrived.

This time, the quantity was correct on paper, but the serial numbers did not match the equipment.

Daniel raised another complaint.

He wrote a formal memorandum and submitted it to the depot's internal audit office.

The memorandum was received by a junior administrative officer named Grace Nwosu.

She stamped it, entered it into the registry and placed it in the incoming correspondence tray.

That was the last time Daniel saw the original complaint.

Three days later, Grace was transferred to another government department.

The new administrative officer told Daniel there was no record of his memorandum.

Daniel requested a copy from his personal files.

He was told that the matter had already been resolved.

He knew it had not.

He began keeping his own copies of every document.

He did not realise that someone had started keeping copies of his movements too.

The person coordinating the missing equipment was not Bamidele Sanni alone.

There was a procurement officer inside the ministry, a warehouse supervisor and a businessman who had supplied the contractor with false delivery documents.

The arrangement had been operating for almost two years.

The equipment was declared as delivered, but some of it was diverted to private construction companies.

The government paid the full contract amount.

The contractor shared the proceeds with the people responsible for approving the deliveries.

Daniel's records threatened the arrangement.

One afternoon, Gambo called him into his office.