By Vera Chinonso Aliyu, YeyeNews.com, October 26, 2021
A masquerade has been arrested by the police for stealing a tuber of yam from a widow in the Ekenwan area of Benin City. YeyeNews.com reporter gathered that the incident happened during a burial ceremony in the community. A youth leader told YeyeNews.com reporter that it was usual for masquerades to come out to entertain during burial ceremonies in that community.
“It’s usually a peaceful event but today this particular masquerade became very harsh towards the spectators especially women. He chased this particular woman, a widow, into her home. We didn’t know at the time that he entered her kitchen and took a tuber of yam. He returned very lively and started playing with the spectators to the surprise of everyone”.
The police said it was while the masquerade was dancing merrily that the widow came out and started demanding that her yam should be returned. “We noticed an argument between the widow and a man in the masquerade costume. We decided to intervene when the argument started degenerating into a physical altercation”, a police man at the scene told YeyeNews.com reporter. “The widow accused the masquerade of stealing the only tuber of yam in her kitchen which he vehemently denied. But when we searched him we found the yam tucked under his costume. We have taken him into custody”.
A witness narrated that the masquerade started crying and pleading for forgiveness when the police were taking him away. “He blamed hunger for his decision to steal the yam. Imagine that even a representative of the gods is not spared of the hunger in Nigeria at this time. When the gods cannot save their own, where lies the fate of mere mortals?”, the witness asked.
However, YeyeNews.com reporter was able to catch up with the masquerade before he was put in a police cell. He explained that he decided to steal the yam because he did not have any food at home. “They did not give me any food to eat at the burial. The women serving food said they have to entertain their guests first because the food is not much. How can I go back with an empty stomach when I have nothing to eat at home? Please forgive me. I will not do it again”, he pleaded with the police.
The two police officers that arrested him were sympathetic, however, they said they were not the complainant and would do their job of maintaining law and order.
