BY MIKE ODIGBE
Sandra Ogbebor is the daughter of a retired insurance broker in Benin City. The last born in a family of five. Beauty, as she was fondly called, lost her mum at a very tender age. While working for someone at an early age, she was introduced into having a relationship with the opposite sex. The man who introduced her to this immoral act and the owner of a barbing saloon in the outskirts of Benin City had told her that with a relationship with the opposite sex, she can do lots of things and get good money. This was the bait that she needed to trigger her into giving out her God given precious jewel. It was not an easy decision to take, she had told one of her peers and a close confidant, simply identified as Jennifer.
The decision looks very easy in its surface value, but reading in-between the lines, it was obvious that the known were more than the unknown in taking a decision that will make her look back after many years and say, had I known. Her story as it was told, looks interesting and attractive. This was at a time when the Nigeria economy had become more unfriendly to the extent that it shapens ones world view. Going into the relationship due to the bad economy which has taken its toll more on girls than the opposite sex was not a bad thing; after all, you use what you have to get what you want.The days had passed when the Nigerian economy was friendly. “I just decided to take the risk and went on with my life,” was all she could mutter before she was able to suppress the tears draining down her cheeks into submission while relating her story to a journalist. Notwithstanding, she could not hide the tears from those around not to notice it. ‘While our relationship lasted, I just woke up one fateful morning and left my father’s house to the guy’s place, thinking that respite will come after I could not eat a day earlier; not because I didn’t want to eat, but because the food was not just there. My guy was always on hand to bail me out anytime such a situation presents itself; a gesture that is sometimes extended to some of my relations when they are around,” she said with a tendency to hide some facts which were obvious to be easily noticed by those around her.
The case of Sandra transcends to other members of the society, especially those that poverty and other vicissitudes of life have moulded their perception of life generally.
Today, everyone has one tale or the other to tell regarding their relationship with the opposite sex.
Some experiences are not what one would even wish for an enemy
Relationship with the opposite sex did not just start now, it is something that had existed from time immemorial. Today, one may be forgiven to assume that it has assumed a frightening dimension to the extent that it qualifies to be an issue for global attention.
A recent case is that of one Amanda Musa Lawan, the daughter of a serving Police officer in Benin City, Edo State. She is not alive today to tell her story. She was said to have been murdered by her 23 year old boy friend, Lucky Thompson Osaghae.
Lucky Thompson Osaghae, a trailer driver apprentice resident in Aifuwa Street in Upper Sakpoba Road, Benin City was said to have murdered Amanda on July 27, 2015 for reasons that the public is yet to know.
Presently, the Police in Benin City, Edo State have declared him wanted. For over a week now, the Police authorities have kept mute over the murder. Nothing has been said or heard from that end. The society is at a loss; the relations are at a loss. The silence of the Police authorities is not helping matters. The worries in some quarters have been further compounded when one realizes that even after the Police declared Lucky, the principal suspect wanted, words are not forthcoming from those who were supposed to speak on the murder.
The next question that readily comes to mind is, will the case of Amanda not be one of the unresolved murder cases in the country. Nigerians and members of the international community have not lost count of the many unresolved murder cases in the country.
The case of a former Minister of Justice, Chief Bola Ige; the wife of the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election cannot be forgotten in a hurry. They have left some soured taste in the memory of Nigerian. How soon will the issue of unresolved murder cases be resolved, only time shall tell
