I was a genuine okada
rider until I had a robber client
By Chioma Okezie-Okeh
Saturday, March 15, 2008
“I was a genuie okada rider till I met a philantropist
who gave me thousands of naira to take him to a place that
he was supposed to pay a fare of N50. The day he gave me N70,000
was when I knew that he was an armed robber. Unfortunately
that was the day the police arrested me”. That is the
tale of a dismissed soilder, Benjamin Solomon, who was arrested
by the police in Festac in the heat of a robbery operation.
The Fesatc police with a tip-off had stormed a criminal hide-out
at Mile Two where Benjamin and his group were arrested.
He confessed to the police that he aided the boys unknowingly
in most of the robbery operations in the area. According to
him, when he was dismissed by the military, the little savings
he had was spent on the lawyer who promised to help him get
his job back.
“ I hired an okada from a friend to support my life
as an okada rider. Sometime in January, I was at Ilasa when
I was accosted by one Tochukwu.
He asked me to take him to Oshodi which I did.
“ I was surprised when he gave me N1000 instead of N50.
I thanked him while he said that he was impressed with the
way I rode the okada. He took my number and called me the
next day that I would take him to another destination. After
that day he gave me N5000, and so we continued till the day
he gave me N70,000. It was at that point that I suspected
that he is a thief. I was making up my mind to quit when the
police arrested me.”
They forgot to lock the gate and I was dismissed.
On why he was dismissed from the Army, Benjamin said that
his superiors forgot to lock the gate to the cell and a suspect
in his custody ran away.
Sometime in 2005, he was on duty at the 149 Ojo Military Cantonment
when a soilder who had erred was brought to the cell. “
They chained him and the intelligence took the key. The soilder
escaped and ran to his village. Luckily they were able to
track him down. Instead of punishing the people that forgot
to lock the cell I was arrested and jailed and finally dismissed.”
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