Juliana Francis
Sometimes people say that ignorance is bliss, but definitely not in all situations. I tell you, ignorance can whip your ass as a young Nigerian and gleefully march you into prison.
These are definitely trying times for young Nigerians that make friends with other youth, especially when they don’t know that such a friend or friends are involved in one crime or another.
I said these are trying times because a large chunk of our youth are engaged in one crime or another. It’s tragic, but true.
The saddest truth, however, is that there’s no ignorance in law. If you have a friend who is a criminal and you’ve taken, accepted and used out of his stolen loots, jail is beckoning at you.
I’ve been in this game of reporting crime for some years now and I’m not messing with you. Some of the dumbest excuses I hear when I interview young Nigerians arrested for crimes are;
- “He’s my friend, I kept the items for him because he asked me, but I didn’t go on the operation with him.’’
- “I know he’s a robber, but I don’t operate with him. He has only given me one stolen phone.”
- “He used to assist me with money for food, but I don’t go on operations with him.”
- “I have never gone on operation with him, I only help him to keep his guns.”
- “He said I should follow him somewhere, I didn’t know it was a robbery operation. I was tricked into going on operation with the gang.”
I’m, however, particularly concerned about the young ladies in our society. Ladies caught up on the insidious wings of materialism that they lose their thinking faculties.
Girls, who want to own and use the latest phones, shoes, clothes and handbags, to mention but a few. Some people label these ladies as slay queens. They compete with their friends in fashion and acquisitions of the latest trendy accessories. They want to belong in the categories of, ‘happening babes.’
Foolishness.
They can do anything and everything to own these items. Such incredible stupidity. Such unbelievable covetousness.
They’re easily dazzled and enchanted by guys that flaunt their wealth.
I’m quite disturbed that some ladies don’t care or want to know the source of their guy’s wealth.
The tragedy of the whole drama is parents and guardians who wouldn’t ask their daughters, how they came to be in possession of expensive phones.
This is a girl, who has no source of income whatsoever or whom they know can never afford such an expensive phone, not even if she saved her salaries for a year. Some of these girls are just undergraduates.
It’s even sickening that some shameless parents collect money from these young girls to feed. Yeah, the child has suddenly becomes the parent of her parents.
The sob story of the poor African Child.
Poverty is no excuse for poor parenting and neglect of our duties as a parent.
There’s time for everything. A child should be allowed to be a child, instead of becoming the breadwinner. When he or she is a child, that’s when you need most to be a parent.
I’m just ashamed these days to see ladies preening like queens of peacocks and boasting that the guy they’re dating is a ‘yahoo yahoo guy.’
Before, people were too ashamed to be associated or known with someone involved in crime. Today, people boast about knowing and dating criminals.
I mean, like it’s the greatest news since the discovery of slice bread.
God save us from silly girls playing with fire. They’ll surely get burnt.
As a lady, you must ask questions about your guy, because when and if he’s eventually arrested, you’ll be dragged to prison with him.
I still remember a story I reported some years go. She was a real beauty and fair complexion.
I don’t know and can’t remember how she met this business guy. She fell in love with him or perhaps with his affluent lifestyle. He spoilt her rotten; she was his Cinderella and he, her Prince Charming.
But like most Cinderella stories, there must come a time when the ticking clock must strike midnight, and then the reality will come crashing down.
The guy told her that he was a businessman, dealing in cotton material. He truly was a businessman, dealing in cotton materials, but his wealth was from kidnapping.
She should be about 19 or 20. He even took her to his shop, to ensure the idea of his being a legitimate businessman stuck. He was just in his early 20s. He bought her a red coloured car. I can’t remember the make.
The day of reckoning dawned; the kidnapping gang had been kidnapping rich folks in Lagos State and moving them to a hideout in between Lagos and Benin Republic border.
The gang was called ‘China Kidnapping Gang.”
The gang was smashed by a team of policemen from the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Lagos State Police Command, led by Abba Kyari, now the Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), heading the Inspector- General- of Police Special Intelligence Response Team (IRT).
She was among suspected kidnappers paraded. She sat among serial kidnapping suspects, under the scorching sun, looking shocked and lost.
She denied knowing that her boyfriend was into crime, but investigators didn’t listen to her.
The boyfriend, while fielding questions from journalists, admitted that the girl didn’t know the source of his wealth, that she only knew him as a trader, with a shop at Alaba-Suru, selling cotton materials. He didn’t want her to know that he was into kidnapping. He was planning to marry her.
Yeah, she was charged to court with others.
Naturally, with a good lawyer, if it could be established that she was innocent, not a member of the gang, she would be allowed to go or receive lesser sentence, but just imagined the hell she had had to go through before the matter was charged to court.
It is because of this skewed way of looking at crimes in Nigeria, that most receivers of stolen goods are often arrested along with the genuine criminals and charged to court.
I seriously think ladies and young men should take extra time and pains to find out what their friends truly do for a living.
Like I said earlier, there’s no ignorance in law. Also, it’s possible to investigate his or her source of wealth, but still come up empty. Some criminals are just too careful.
Most policemen believe that a friend of a criminal usually knows that his friend is a criminal. It’s going to take a while to convince them otherwise. So why not avoid such headaches? Keep away from such friends.
Moreover, most criminals usually mention names of their friends during torture. He could mention you.
The only thing I can tell you is to watch out for those red flags.
Ask questions. If he’s too evasive, too smooth, too hostile, start to worry. When his earnings and spending are not adding up, it is time to worry or take a walk.
Remember, there’s no ignorance in law.
Again, there’s another aspect of criminals you need to know and understand.
When he starts dating you and trusts you enough to tell you about his operations, you’ve become sucked in and trapped. Sis, you’re going nowhere. He has deliberately conscripted you into the gang.
It means your life and those of your family members are at stake. Criminals have no qualms in taking lives.
This, however, is a discussion for another day.
First Published 2020
