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These girls, arrested with an armed robbery gang, say they only attend to the sensual pleasure of the gangsters, not party to their nefarious escapades. But the police are not convinced
Sesan Olufowobi
They ordinarily would constitute our future mothers, but these three 18-year-old spinsters have an unenviable date with destiny; their desperate urge for the sunny side of life has landed them in big trouble.
It is a case of show me your friend and I will tell you what you are. Beauty Ishmel, Omowunmi Opoola and Ndidi Odi are now struggling to talk their ways out of prison by convincing the police in Lagos State that they were no more than fortune seekers in the midst of a notorious armed robbery gang that has just been arrested by the security agents.
The female youngsters were arrested along side seven members of the notorious gang which according to the police commissioner, Israel Ajao, had terrorised the people of FESTAC, Satellite Town and the entire Ojo area of Lagos State.
The police commissioner said that after a long and painstaking investigation, the police finally, located the hideout of the robbery suspects and by the time they descended on Savil Hotel Cassidy along Okokomaiko in Ojo Local Government area, Beauty Omowunmi and Ndidi were among those who could not escape arrest.
And the police appears not sympathetic to the fears of the young girls as one of the policemen told our correspondent that there were proofs that the ladies had been interacting with members of the gang for a long time.
The conclusion reached by the police, according to him, was that the ladies were either members of the notorious gang, though not used for operations, or they were quite conscious of the sort of business the men were into. Either way, he said, the three girls were guilty of a criminal offence.
That, however is not the thinking of the girls who told our correspondent that though they might be guilty of immoral behaviour, they were definitely not robbers.
Omowunmi, for instance, told Saturday Punch that she was a professional prostitute and not an armed robber, and that she had only gone to patronise the men at the time they were arrested. Asked why an 18-year-old girl would opt for prostitution, she looked contemptuously at our correspondent before replying: �I can see that you live a sheltered life, but people like us who were not born with silver spoons in our mouths have to struggle to make ends meet. That is the reality.�
So, how does struggling to make ends meet land one in police net? Omowunmi broke down, saying that she knew nothing about the charges the police were hanging on her neck.
According to her, she met one of the gang members a week before the arrest and after the man agreed to pay N800 for a �night of her time,� she agreed to follow him.
Omowunmi explained that in her chosen profession, it was difficult to get a man to pay as much as N800 for a night despite the risk involved. �Those that collect big money are the high class ones and you can find them in my area,� she said.
She recollected that two days before she met the man, another customer had nearly killed her with sex. �And what did I get the following morning? A meagre N500,� she lamented.
So, when Chuks, her customer offered N800 and promised to take her to a beer parlour where they would spend the larger part of the night, she thought the heavens had fallen on her laps.
But for Beauty and Ndidi, it was another story entirely. Ndidi said she was in love with a member of the gang. �But true to God, I did not know Godwin (her lover) was a thief,� she swore.
According to her, they had met few weeks previously and when they agreed to date, Godwin gave her his Savil Hotel address.
�I didn�t know the place, but I knew Cassidy was where my friend, Beauty lived. So I went to her place when I wanted to visit Godwin.�
Luck smiled on Ndidi when she contacted Beauty. The latter did not only know the hotel, she also knew Godwin, who she had always been looking at as a big time spender.
Beauty went to the hotel with Ndidi and instead of leaving immediately she decided to wait and �enjoy� herself too. When she was leaving, Godwin thanked her and gave her some money. That gesture became the tonic she needed to continue to encourage her friend to continue her relationship with Godwin. She sometimes had to practically drag her friend to Godwin�s abode because of the �good life� that awaited her there, and the fact that she stood the chance of returning home with some money.
So on the fateful night of their arrest, the girls claimed that they were in the hotel having a �nice time� with their boyfriend and customer. Bottles of beer were flowing freely, accompanied by fried chicken. Not believing her good fortune, Omowunmi told our correspondent that she sat back, having her own portion of the chicken and sipping from her bottle of malt drink.
�That was when they came,� she recollected, referring to the policemen who effected their arrest.
According to her, the men came shouting and shooting into the air, not listening to anybody and generally behaving as if they were possessed.
In the ensuing commotion, she remembered that her �customer� escaped alongside some other gang members. But others were not so lucky; they were arrested together with the three young ladies.
It was not clear what the police intended to do with the ladies, but the police commissioner told our correspondent that anybody arrested and paraded by the police must be guilty of one offence or the other.
According to him, the new police policy of robust public relation, especially at the grassroots level, did not leave any room for mistake. He said it was better to let an armed robber escape than injure an innocent citizen, whether physically or psychologically.
Some of the policemen also spoke in support of their boss. According to one of them, the girls were carried away by the lust for money and that was why it did not occur to them to ask themselves the source of the men�s wealth even when it was obvious that they had no job.
�Look at that Beauty, for example, she might be telling the truth. But she cannot convince me that she was not going to that hotel because of the monetary compensation she was getting.�
Beauty, however, felt otherwise. Looking spent, tired and remorseful, she told our correspondent that she thought she was doing a neighbour and a friend some favour.
�Ndidi was always afraid to go there alone, so I accompanied her. After she had settled down with her boyfriend, I would leave. And if he gave me something, shouldn�t I take it? But I don�t go there because of money but because of my friend,� she said.
Police, however, are not in a hurry to leave the girls.
SATURDAY PUNCH, June 26, 2004
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