I want to welcome you, my wonderful readers, once again to the staple of Amebo’s corner. I believe you are having a swell weekend.
This week, I want to flashback on the story of Seun Egbegbe’s iPhone stealing saga and how it inspired one of Lagos’ hottest street songs. This is not even Amebo I’m peddling sef.
I don’t want to come off as mocking somebody o! But why would a celebrity, who has all the fame and connection, think stealing or drug peddling is the next big thing?
As far as we know, someone committed a crime and that’s all we saw. But for Mr Real, it was an opportunity to score a hit song.
The young producer saw the news on his mobile phone. He read about how a man attempted to steal a dozen iPhones from a shop in computer village. And how the crowd tried to lynch him, but was saved by the police.
Ordinarily, this would pass for a normal occurrence that would never have made news. But this time, the alleged thief is a popular person, Seun Egbegbe, who doubles as a movie producer and director.
That news became the inspiration for a single titled ‘Legbegbe,’ featuring street-hop acts, Obadice, Idowest, and Kelvin Chuks. And boy did they do it well.
Let’s leave the talented bunch and talk about the unfortunate one that inspired the song.
The Yoruba film-maker is a highly celebrated figure, at least before the drama, in the Yoruba movie industry. He first made headlines when his romance with popular Yoruba actress, Toyin Aimakhu made news in every news medium known. As a matter of fact, the lovebirds only became a public item when they fell apart. At that point, Seun threatened to ostracise Toyin from movie making unless she did his bidding. They so washed their linens, dirty or not, in the public it soon slipped that once in the good days, Seun presented his love Toyin with a Range Rover SUV as gift. That was a good gesture indeed. But what he did next is what landed him in trouble. You want to know? Pay attention.
In November 2016, a mob at the Computer Village in Ikeja, Lagos State, reportedly accosted and beat Seun up for allegedly stealing nine iPhones at a shop in the area. E gba mi o!
However, the film-maker reportedly told policemen investigating the incident that he had no intention of stealing the phones, (I wonder what his intention were) but had stepped into his vehicle to pick some money when the sales boy raised the alarm.
Further investigations according to reports however reveal that Mr lover-lover had gone to the shop around 10am on Tuesday and had told the sales boy he met in the shop that he wanted to buy some iPhones. Then, since he was at the time, romantically involved with Toyin, she left the shop with the phones. He then told the seller he wanted to pick money from his jeep where three other people were allegedly sitting cozily. He, however, reportedly attempted to leave in the waiting jeep without paying for the phones. It was at this point that the sales boy raised the alarm, drawing attention of other traders in the area who stopped the vehicle and dragged poor Seun out.
They gave him the beating of his life, reports said at the time. Before he was handed over to the police at the Area F Command, Ikeja.
He would later be charged to court and granted bail.
Just as the story formed the basis for my talk this week, it formed the theme for the ‘Legbegbe’ song. When translated literally into English, legbegbe means ‘side by side.’ It’s a slang for when people stand beside you, and pick your pocket. They stand by your side and then your ‘iPhone’ disappears.
It can also be a blanket term for everything shady or ‘sideways’. When someone says “bobo yen ma se e legbegbe,” it means “that guy is being very shady.”
Seun Egbegbe went after 8 iPhones, and that’s why the hook has the iPhone count.
iPhone 1 – legbegbe, iPhone 2 – legbegbe, up until iPhone 8 – legbegbe.
This same Egbebe , Amebo’s Conner gathered has been kept away since February 10 , 2017 , after he was arraigned by the police for alleged serial frauds involving N 39, 098 , 100 , $ 90, 000 and £ 12 , 550 .
The police alleged that Egbegbe fraudulently obtained the money from no fewer than 40 Bureau De Change operators in Lagos over a period of two years – 2015 to 2017.
When you see this people riding big jeeps, claiming to live in Lekki and flaunting cash, don’t be one of the gullible ones who would think it is just the entertainment business that is giving them the fortune o. Some are into one shady deal or the other.
My Amebo is okay for today. Let me come and be going. See you next week.