He is a famous guy who sent me a message on one of the social media platforms. I responded and our conversation began from there. It wasn’t anything deep, just the usual “Hello, how are you?” That’s how we kept in touch for a few months. So even though I didn’t know him one on one, it felt like I had known him for a while. 

Along the line, he kept asking me to meet up with him. I mostly gave him excuses that I was busy and that I’d let him know if I was available. One day I was going through some work stuff when a message popped up on my phone, “Did I see you at Afrikiko today? If it’s not you then it’s someone who looks very much like you.” It was from Kwadwo. I wasn’t the person he saw but I figured it was time I met up with him. So I replied, “No, I didn’t go to Afrikiko today, but I plan on going there next week so I will text you when I do.”

So I went to Afrikiko the next week as planned, and I texted Kwadwo that I was around. He showed up looking dashing. He is tall, dark, and very attractive. He had this kind of bad-boy charisma. The kind that older women warn young girls to flee from. The man looked like someone people listened to even if he said a lot of nonsense. My first instinct was, “Maybe this whole bad boy vibes is what he displays on the outside because he is a public figure. I am sure if I get close to him, he would be different.” So we talked, and I asked him to dance with me but he shook his head. 

He said he didn’t like dancing so I left him at our table and went dancing alone. In between breaks, I checked up on him to see if he was okay. During one of the breaks, he asked me, “What are you doing tomorrow?” I told him, “I have a date with my girlfriends.” “Why don’t you cancel and spend time with me instead?” He suggested. I said no at first, but I saw the determined look on his face and my heart melted. I am the kind of girl who never chooses a man, especially one that I had just met, over my friends but that night I did. I texted my girls and told them something came up so I wouldn’t be able to see them.

After I got tired of dancing, I told him I had to go home. His response was, “Before you do, I’d like us to get something to eat.” I said okay and we went to a restaurant in Osu. We talked, ate, and had a good time. I was so lost in the moment that I forgot about my troubles. I enjoyed getting to know him and from the little I saw, he didn’t drink or smoke. He kept holding my hand and touching my face in a way that made me feel good. I hadn’t dressed up that night or worn makeup. So the fact that he was comfortable showing me off in my natural state in public made me feel like he liked me for who I am. 

At the end of the night, I wanted to order a ride home but he said, “It’s the wee hours of the morning. I don’t think it’s safe for you to go home at this time. Spend the night at my place and then you can go home tomorrow.” “I’ve gone home at this time a couple of times. It’s safe.” I responded. He held my hand and looked at me, “Don’t you trust me? I am a complete gentleman, you’ve seen that I haven’t been inappropriate with you all night.” I thought about it for a moment and decided that I would spend the night with him. I knew it was dangerous to put my faith in him but I liked how good he made me feel. 

When we got to his place we talked some more and kissed. It was nice but I stopped it when I realized things were getting heated. It wasn’t because I didn’t want to go further with him but because I am not the kind of girl who sleeps with a man on the first date. His reaction was, “I understand why you feel the need to slow down. There are lots of f-k boys and players out there so even when you meet the right person you tend to fear them.” I don’t know if it was because I was not in a good place, or it was because of how good he made me feel, but the line worked on me. When we kissed again, I gave myself fully to it and allowed things to go wild. We ended up having an amazing shuperu. And the next morning we had breakfast. 

While we were eating, he kept looking at his phone and barely spoke to me. I started feeling off. “I thought you said you didn’t have a girlfriend,” I asked him. He looked at me and said, “Yes, I don’t.” I then asked him, “So who is texting you then?” He gave me a tight smile, “No one. I’m just checking out some work messages. You know that I’m a content creator on Facebook and Instagram. My work is on my phone, and my phone is always buzzing with notifications.” I wanted to believe him but after the night we had, I didn’t want to take any chances and end up being played. So I watched him every time he unlocked his phone and memorized his password. 

Luckily for me, he was planning to go and meet up with his friends so he asked me to wait for him to drop me off at home. While he was in the shower, I couldn’t resist the temptation to look through his phone. Again, I am not the kind of girl who goes through a man’s phone but I had a good time with him and I wanted to be sure that he was real, so I became that girl. I took the phone and opened his messages. The things I saw that morning were like a knife to my heart. This guy is a public figure but he was the one sending girls messages and asking them why they won’t make time for him. He had already slept with some of the girls. I saw that he used the line, “Did I see you at Afrikiko today? If it’s not you then it’s someone who looks very much like you,” on four different girls. 

I opened his WhatsApp messages and saw that he had created a broadcast group full of girls. He would text “How are you doing?” And they would all receive it and start a conversation with him. He had blocked over two hundred chats and I assumed they were of girls he had slept with and didn’t want to keep around anymore. My heart felt claustrophobic in my chest as I looked at some of the chats. The girls are many so he saves their numbers with their first name, place, and date he met them. For example, he saved a girl’s name as “Salsa New One 2021”. He saved other girls’ names as, “Sugar P 22” “Nigerian Gal Bank” and a whole lot of others. The next app I opened was photos. I saw that he had taken photos and videos of girls naked. From what I deduced, the girls didn’t know that they were being photographed. He recorded some of them while they were cleaning themselves up after shuperu. What nearly gave me a heart attack was when I saw photos and videos of myself too. I was naked in all of them and I had no idea when he took them. 

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I was able to delete my photos and locked the phone before he returned from the bathroom. I tried to maintain a calm demeanour but on the inside, I was terrified. Because he was a public figure with a charming charisma, I never thought he was a pervert. But after what I saw on his phone, I just wanted to run out of his apartment and never look back. All those girls he hooked up with have no idea that he took photos and videos of them. What happens if someone steals his phone? What happens if someone comes across it and leaks them? Most of them look very young; late teens and early twenties. I also realized that the girls had similar body types; dark skin, small waist, wide hips, and tall. There were a few fair girls but all of them had curves. 

So from what I have concluded, he uses his status as a public figure to reach out to young girls on Facebook and Instagram. He mostly meets them at Afrikiko, sleeps with them at some point, and takes photos or videos of them naked without their knowledge. And from the blocked contacts I saw, he probably blocks them when they get too clingy. When he dropped me off that morning he asked if he was going to see me that night. I don’t know if he meant it or if it was part of his act.  But I told him I’d let him know and then I went ahead and block him on all social media platforms. I am a grown woman, I knew the risk I was taking when I went home with him so I don’t regret the night we spent together. 

My concern, however, is the photos of the girls on his phone. It seems he keeps those photos as receipts of the shuperu he has with them. I don’t understand why anyone would do such a thing. I don’t know how many girls he has already preyed on or how many he would continue to prey on. That’s why I am sharing this story here. I know that he may not have met all of those girls at Afrikiko but I am hoping that maybe one person would read this and not fall for his act the way others already did.

—Araba

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