The previous evening, I had just escaped a daring armed robbery attack. In the last week, my friend would say to me – Duke, be safe, and I would ask her, why do you always tell me to be safe? She would say, you are always on the road, and the spate of robbery in Lagos is on the increase, and I would say, me I am Duke of Shomolu; even the bandits will respect authority.
That is how that evening, on my way home in traffic (I had dismissed my driver cos it was late, and I was listening to the radio and waiting for traffic to clear), I saw people in front scrambling out of their cars and running in different directions. I first wanted to laugh because, in things like this, you will see unity. Fulani, Yoruba, Igbo, Ibibio, all of us scampering together o, shouting in our different languages for help but united in fright. But me, I calm. You know I get special military training. The koboko dey give me in command secondary school has made me strong, so I watch to know my next move. The epicentre was seven cars away from me, so I decided not to run and leave my car because of the nudes on my laptop.
I turned the car and faced the opposite direction to drive towards the island. That is how I saw a police patrol van turning in front of me. The driver sef, a full policeman, no get my kind of expertise as he took almost forever to turn. I shouted oga turn na make dem no kill me here o. He say sorry. I say oya. They were four in number fully armed. Even one came down with pistol clearing road for them to escape. Then it dawned on me, wasn’t police expected to drive towards the epicentre and not the other way with us. But will I stop and ask? We all needed to escape.
By the time we were at a safe point, I call Duchess and say armed robber o. You see, women, she thought it was one of my fibs and said, ‘greet the young girl’ and drop the phone. You see life. I just honker down refusing to be distracted and later when the road was clear, I found my way home.
So you will forgive me if I didn’t watch emperor, lord, and maximum ruler on Arise TV. Not really in the mood to know how the cows are doing. Fear is catching me to leave my house as a result.
