BlackBerry Craze

BlackBerry

BlackBerry phones become the device of choice for many youths who go to any length to own it
By Osamudiamen Ogbonmwan
The cross over night to the year 2012 was un- derway as worshippers of the Christ Miracle
Church, Mile 2 gathered to spend the last minutes of the year 2011 in the presence of God. A few minutes into the New Year, a heated praying session was embarked upon with everyone communing with their creator. As the prayers intensified, suddenly from the back seats came a yell from a man who had caught a young girl red handed helping herself to the phone (a BlackBerry) of another lady who was fervently praying.
Immediately the shouts of “Thief!” “Thief! “Thief!” rented the air. Many worshippers got distracted from their prayers as they faced the direction of where the sound was coming from. About a dozen men gathered round the “thief” and dragged her outside the church. She wasn’t let off the hook as many had thought she would. Instead she was beaten till blood gushed out of her mouth. The first few minutes of the New Year surely weren’t a happy one for her. If not for the intervention of some of the elders in the church, she probably wouldn’t be able to tell her story.
Late last year, the story of an unidentified lady who stole a BlackBerry phone hit the internet. Her case was another pathetic one. The incident which had happened in Lagos state was recorded by her accusers who were seen shamelessly fondling her breast as a means of “punishing” her for the crime she had committed. While the lady pleaded for leniency all through the time, the men, numbering up to five, fumbled around her and finally, beat and stripped her as she wailed helplessly.
A lady was also given the jungle justice in Lagos for stealing a BlackBerry phone. The lady a night nurse, The Source gathered decided to steal the phone after attending to her patient.
These are only just a few examples of the extent some youths are now going to get a Blackberry phone. Over the past few years, the craze for Blackberry phones among some Nigerians, especially the youths, has been overwhelming. The Source gathered that in every 1000 students, about 900 have a BlackBerry phone. The demand for this phone has become so much that it is probably the most used phone in the country right now. The phone comes in different varieties but the most common are the Blackberry Curve, Bold and Touch. The price range differs also. Investigation reveals that it is between N28,500 and N115,000.
According to a few students The Source spoke to, BlackBerry phone and its services are second to none.
Tolani Adekoya, a 300 level student of the University of Lagos told The Source that “ It is cheaper to use these days when you consider the fact that you can send as much messages as you can for almost free. After the monthly BlackBerry (also widely known as BB) subscription, you can go on and on. It is fantastic. You can reach many people both home and abroad without as much as making a call”, Adekoya who has two BlackBerry phones, a Curve and a Touch said
Grace Ogenetega owns one. “I bought my Blackberry Bold 3 a few months ago for N70,000 and it has been a big help to me. Going to the internet is made much easier and there are various features in it that makes communication really easy”.
When The Source spoke to Morenike Adedeji, a teacher, she had this to say: “ I won’t say to you that the BlackBerry phone is bad. It is very good. But these days you see very young children clutching such phone. It makes a wise person wonder where they got it from. Have some parents ever wondered where there kids get money to buy the phones that is if they weren’t the ones who bought it for them? In a situation whereby a parent does not have money to buy such expensive phones for a child and before he knows it, that child has come home with such device, what does he do? You see many secondary school students today with not just any kind of BlackBerries but with a Touch which costs over N100,000. Tell me why many of them wouldn’t resort to stealing when they see their mates using such a phone?”
“The case of a young girl who decided to sleep with a man just to get this type of phone readily comes to mind as I speak to you. Many of our young children have become sex slaves because they want a commodity that is beyond their reach. They have thrown caution to the wind”, another parent, Haruna Ogedengbe said.
For Daniel Adenike who uses a BlackBerry Touch, considered to be the most expensive of the range, owning such a phone is a thing of status.
Here him: “Most times, if one doesn’t have a BlackBerry in school, you are ridiculed by your peers. Though it is a great source of easy internet access but mostly in the midst of thousands who use such phones, it will be a disgrace if you don’t have it.”, Adenike made known.
Many of these young BlackBerry users have become prey to men of the underworld.
For Umukuro Gabriel, a 200 level student of the University of Lagos, his Touch Blackberry phone was snatched from him as he made his way to school from home one early morning.
Bimbo Yakubu’s phone was snatched from her while in a public transportation.
“I was just fiddling with it when suddenly; a hand came in through the window outside and snatched it. That was the last day I saw that phone”, she sadly said.
Tade Igbalode a clerk said his BlackBerry Curve was stolen when it was being charged in an office close to his, at work.
More young people, women especially, had been caught stealing these phones.
In Akure, the Ondo state capital two months ago, two ladies, Morenike Dada and Dayo Richards were beaten and stripped for stealing money and BlackBerry phones belonging to their host.
In a related incident, another young lady was giving the same treatment after she was caught stealing a BlackBerry at the Computer Village in Ikeja. After she had been given the beating of her life, she was made to hold the phone while her pictures were taken continuously.
Because of its great demand among the populace, stolen and used ones are often hawked at strategic places for between N15,000 to N55,000, depending on the type you want.