Adventures Of Oko Ashawo The Uber Dirver -16

E don happen!!!

Recently, I reconnected with an old friend, Emeka via our school’s Whatsapp group. We had not seen each other since we left secondary school and when he got transferred recently to the city where I live, it was an exciting opportunity to see him again and catch up on old times. We talked regularly on the phone and planned to meet on a Sunday evening by 6pm when he would be free because of the nature of his job. 

Sunday is usually a very busy for me because a lot of requests are received on the e-hailing platforms (Uber/Bolt/Ocar) starting from early in the morning when people go to church till they close and go back home. People also move around visiting friends and families, go the malls, eateries and other various places of interest.


I put off my e-hailing apps by 5pm on the day we chose to see and proceeded to our meeting point; a Hotel on the way to his house in the outskirts of town. I got there a few minutes before 6pm and waited for him to join me. It was an anxious moment and I didn’t really know what to expect. Though I had seen his recent pictures, the thought of seeing him again after so many years brought back fond memories of our days back in secondary school.


He arrived a few minutes later and I clearly recognized him as he parked his car. In excitement, we hugged each other and headed straight to the outdoor bar. We made noise like little children, talked about our friends that we’ve been in touch with and generally relished the good old times.

He asked if I was hungry and told me to order for whatever I wanted. I called the waiter, looked at the menu, made my choice and placed the order. It was going to take about 30 minutes for it to be ready so we ordered for drinks while waiting.

We kept talking and shortly afterwards, something caught our attention - a lady and a guy were having a heated argument. I told my friend to pause a little so that we could figure out what was going on. The lady was trying to leave the premises of the hotel but the guy dragged her back by her shirt, held on to her handbag , seized her shoes and said she would go nowhere.

This stirred our curiously and when the guy was beginning to get more violent with the lady, we couldn’t take it anymore. Emeka then suggested that he would go and intervene while I stay back to watch over our drinks. As soon as he got up, a naughty part of me roused as I picked up my phone to record what was going on.

In the course of my work, there are always lots of dramas and this seemed to be an interesting one as I was bent on capturing every moment. I could hear them clearly from where I sat as my friend intervened in the matter, asking the guy to cool down and not hit the lady. He asked them to explain what happened.

We discovered that the guy in question is a staff of the hotel while the lady is a call girl whose name is Faith. According to her, she came to the hotel in the company of a man earlier that afternoon, ordered for food and drinks and checked into a room. They had s*x and shortly afterwards, he excused himself in the guise of going out to withdraw money from an ATM nearby, pay for the room, her services including the food and drinks. Unfortunately, the guy had disappeared for over 4 hours with no trace. 

Alas, she had been s#xually defrauded.

The hotel staff demanded the money from Faith, which was 12 thousand naira in total; 8 thousand naira for the room and 4 thousand for the food and drinks. She said she didn’t have that kind of money on her but insisted on leaving since she also had made a loss. This was the crux of the issue.

My friend appealed for calm and while still trying to settle the issue, more people gathered. I looked at my phone and reviewed some of the recordings I had made, which were quite hilarious and I smiled. Emeka got tired and came back to join me on the table as we finished our drinks while still observing what was going on.

It was past 30 minutes already and the food was not in sight. I called on the waiter who appealed to me to be a little more patient. I then decided to go nearer to where the issue was being settled. This time, I thought to myself that having a close ‘video shoot’ from my phone should be more fun. In all of these, Emeka didn’t know that I was using my phone to record the incident.

As I got close to where the issue was being handled, the manager of the hotel and a few other people who waded into the matter asked that the girl should narrate everything that happened from the beginning. Already, I had a few recordings and felt that I should stop but this naughty part of me nudged me to go on and record more since this was my golden chance to get the full story on video.

I placed the phone stylishly on my chest, recording what was going on as Faith told her story while crying. In my mind, I was glad that I had captured a beautiful moment, which I planned to edit later to create a story for fun in some Whatsapp groups that I belong to. The Hotel Management had decided that Faith would pay for the room, food and drinks as she couldn’t produce the man. The plan was to hold on to her phone till she produced the money.

As she rounded up, I turned my phone to stop the recording. Unknown to me, someone had been watching me; a guy with a huge frame. Immediately, he grabbed my phone from me and as I struggled with him, my expensive wireless earpiece got damaged and fell on the floor. He then made an announcement while pointing at me, that this ‘Agbaya’ was caught filming everyone and that was how everything changed.

My phone was seized while one other guy suggested that they should destroy the phone by repeatedly smashing it on the floor to teach me a bitter lesson. Haaa ... what did I just hear? I had just lost my Bluetooth device and now, I would lose my new phone that I bought less than 3 months ago? So many things went through my mind in a flash. This is the phone I use for my business that has all my contacts and my e-hailing apps. Most of all, I had brought shame upon myself in the sense that I was meeting my friend for the first time after so many years and wondered what kind of impression I would leave in his heart. I quickly appealed to the people that they should just delete the videos instead.

In a twist of fate, the whole thing was turned on me. Faith was asked to go while the hotel staff responsible for the debt was told that the money would be recovered from his salary at the end of the month. Everyone now faced me and hurled all sorts of abuses and insults at me. One of them suggested that I should be arrested and taken to the police station. By this time, my friend had noticed that something was wrong and he came to find out what had happened.

In the midst of the whole drama, Emeka asked me to go and sit down while he handled the situation. By this time, my food (poundo yam with egusi and goat meat) was ready but I had lost appetite. He talked with them for a bit and came to join me after a while. He urged me to eat, assuring me that he had spoken with them and that my phone would be returned after deleting the videos. I had some relief when I heard that I had a chance of getting my phone back. I then ate but each swallow went down my throat with a lot of distress.

The guys with my phone sat at the next table to us where about 5 of them discussed my matter. They watched each clip one after the other and deleted them immediately. One of them now said it’s only

God that saved him because this may have hindered his upcoming wedding since he showed clearly in the background of some of the videos. According to him, he had just left church with his fiancée after a counseling session that afternoon telling her that he was going to see his sick mother. She had wanted them to hangout but he preferred to be with his guys that evening to have drinks hence he lied to her. He said his wife to be is very active on social media and he could only imagine the shock on her face when she sees him at the background of a trending video involving an ashawo.


After a while, they called my friend and told him that he should be wary of me because I also recorded him but the videos have been deleted while my phone was still being held onto. I had never felt so bad and wished this was all a dream. One of them later came to meet us at our table and said we have to bail the phone with money. After some negotiations, Emeka brought out 5 thousand naira from his wallet and gave to them while my phone was released back to me. I felt so bad and wished all these never happened. We couldn’t really have any meaningful conversation after that and he left shortly afterwards.



That was how my love for ‘Amebo’ almost put me in deep trouble. Anyway, as they say, sh*t happens.