‘How Benin Madam Implicated Me For Drugs Dealing And I Went To Jail’

By Cami Ezenwa

A Nigerian woman has shared a heart-rending experience of how her Benin Republic-based madam implicated her with a drug dealing allegation, a crime she never committed and how she ended up going to jail over it.

Charity Ezekwe, a mother of four was a bundle of nerves, groaning, hissing and dropping tear as she recalled that harrowing phase of her life..

All she needed was a job to support her husband and in the bringing up of their four children.

Instead, it turned out the darkest moment of her motherhood, not only because the last one was still weaning but because the elder siblings were transiting in their education. She tells the story herself:

I was working as a sales girl for a woman I saw as dealing on clothing materials ignorant that she was into another thing, drug dealing.

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Sometimes, some guys would troop in and out her shop and I would be wondering what was going on being new on the job.

One day, she called me and said I should be careful, that it wasn’t everything that i was seeing that i should be talking about .

I was surprised and I asked her if I had done anything wrong?

She replied that she was just warning me, that whatever I saw, I should shut up my mouth.
This was in 2020, and she had a very big shop in Benin Republic where she was selling clothing materials in wholesale.

The shop was demarcated and there were two other sales girls.

One day, some boys came in groups like intending travelers, though the bags they carried were like for those who needed short time lodging.
I wasn’t comfortable and I began praying to God to protect me. Later when my madam came, she and those boys went to the back of the house and had a long discussion, then they left.

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The next day, when another group came, she sent me on an errand.

I was trying to remind her, that there would be nobody else in the shop, she said I should go, that she was there
My spirit was telling me something was wrong but since she is the owner of the shop there was nothing I could do.
She told me, “when you get there, tell the woman that she should give you that load”.

The woman handed me something packaged in a small envelope. I was wondering in my mind, “is this the load?”
I just came and handed it to her and went back to my seat.
After about one week, things changed: two police officers, a male and female stormed the shop .

They said somebody came to their office and reported that there was a drug case, that some boys dropped something with us to help them hide.

They said she should bring the person responsible for the package They were not in uniform, but they had their ID cards. I told them that my madam was not around. They asked the other sales girls and they both said the same thing.
They dropped their phone numbers saying they would be back.
When they returned they were asking my madam which lady she sent on an errand. That was how she called me out.

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The man began to ask me saying, what was that package they dropped in your corner.
I told them that nobody dropped anything in my corner, that the only thing my madam sent me to go and get from one of her customers down there was one big envelope.
I said the woman handed over an envelope to me and I handed it over to my madam.

There and then, my madam denied ever receiving any parcel from me.

I wanted to say something, she shunned me and said, please! Immediately, I froze

The officers said I should remain silent. They took me into their custody, searched my corner, did not find anything but took me to their headquarters.
After the interrogation, they said I should go but that they would hold my madam responsible if I got missing.

From that moment, the woman never gave me breathing space. Whenever I needed to eat, she would send someone to go and get the food.

When the police returned the following day, they said I should follow them to their office
When I got there with my madam, they alleged that I harboured drug dealers.

The way the whole thing happened convinced me it was her reason for employing sales girls
The warehouse was big with different sections for different items, my section was for Ankara but she was using clothes for coverup.

When my husband came, they said drugs we’re found with me.
My husband could not believe his ears I had to swear that I never knew anything about it. I narrated to him everything that happened, but before you knew it, they threw me into Jail. I was there one day, a week, two weeks…

Everybody in my family was crying. I was in jail crying but I was also praying. When our pastor came, he said I shouldn’t worry, that God would take control.
I prayed to God that, even if I had no one to cry to or to help me, He should vindicate me over the drug dealing allegation.

At a time, the woman called my husband and said, if he wanted me to see the cloud again, that there is an amount of money he should pay. And she was coming from time to time to the police station, asking them if I had confessed.

I said, confess what, to something I didn’t know anything about?
I said I would rather die than confess to drug dealing of all crimes, something that I didn’t know anything about.

She even called my husband aside, telling him to raise money, that she had a strong lawyer who could defend the case.

My husband told her he believed in his wife but then, at a point, he was pressured to rally round to raise about 800, 000 naira.

It was a really trying moment of our life as a family. One of my daughters missed her junior WAEC because of the case, because there was no money to register her.

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One of those nights, I was in a dream and had a case and as they began calling suspects out, they called my name. The judge asked me whether I was aware of the charges for which I was being held, I said I was not, and that I was innocent of the accusation. He responded, noted and told me to step aside.

When the verdict later came, they said I had won the case. I started rejoicing and celebrating in that dream until I woke to real life. Apparently, it had a direct relationship with the drug dealing allegation against me

My cell mate was surprised and was asking me what happened and I explained to her.

She said God would see me through. And she said something that struck me: she said in her own case that she was guilty, that she had been involved in drug dealing as a business . An aged woman of about sixty years, she said even if she died in jail, she would not regret because she had made money out of drug dealing.
I told her I would not die, because I was innocent, that my children have not known me, that God would surely vindicate me.

After that dream, it happened that my madam was now having problems with those boys, they could not give her the agreed percentage. Apparently, they succeeded in the initial ones, it was in the last batch that they caught them.

By that time, I had been in the cell for about 8 months.

One day, the officers came to the cell and called out my name. I raised my hands.

One of the police officers then said to me, that God you are serving, keep serving Him well. He has vindicated you.
And he began to ask me what actually happened.

After I narrated, he said henceforth, I should not work with the woman again, that she was the brain behind all that I went through, that they had been exposed and caught. So, that was how I was saved from a drug dealing allegation that I never was part of.

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They even took me to where my Madam and the others were handcuffed.

I said ma, ” Why did you do this to me? I served you diligently, I never for one day took your money, except the one you gave me or paid me as salary.
I never for one day took your material from the back, except the one you gave me. What did I do to you or your family? My God will surely punish you for this’

By that time, they had bitten them thoroughly, about six of them and she was the only woman.

She was now saying she was sorry, I should forgive her.

The police said they were sorry, that they would compensate me
I told them I didn’t need their compensa