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Aisha Yakubu speaks to GODWIN ISENYO about the demolition of her Asher Queens and Kings Restaurant by the Kaduna State Government over alleged plan to host a ‘sex party’ in the facility
Your restaurant, Asher Queens and Kings, was demolished by the Kaduna State Government over an alleged plan to host a “sex party”. What is your reaction to this?
It is shocking. It is devastating because I never thought of using a place such as my restaurant for such an ungodly venture like ‘sex party.’ For God’s sake, I have children and I am a married woman. So, when they said ‘sex party’, I was thinking it was a different thing since I never envisaged such a thing. I was really heartbroken on hearing this. Since this thing happened, I have not been able to sleep. It’s still like I am dreaming and I need someone to just tap me and wake me up and say, ‘Look, it’s all a dream ooo,’ and that I need to wake up. I really wish someone will wake me up and tell me this.
What is your response to the allegation that the facility is being used to promote immorality in the state?
It is not true. My place is Asher Queens and Kings Restaurant and it is just a storey building. There are no rooms; no guest rooms to say one wants to do what is contrary to what I was doing there before the demolition. So, I am surprised when they were saying it’s a guest inn and hotel. It is not true. The place is a business place I had been operating in that place for close to eight years. I started very small but with zeal and perseverance, I moved on. I kept pushing after I took over from my mother.
Tell us what you know about the ‘sex party’ in the facility before it was pulled down.
I don’t know anything about the sex party. The only thing that I know is that after our arrest…in fact, it was only yesterday (Tuesday) that I set my eyes on the Marvellous Apkan that posted on the social media that there was going to be a ‘sex party’. When we met face-to-face yesterday, he went on his knees begging me to forgive him.
At first, I wanted to say that he doesn’t know our address, just as we had stated at the police station but I was shocked when he told us that he chatted with one policeman and he gave him the address of my place and I asked him why. He then went down on his knees, saying it was not meant to happen
But you stated earlier that the flier circulated by the organisers did not have the address of your facility as the venue of the ‘sex party’?
Yes. That was the question that we asked them when we got to the police station but the police claimed they chatted with the person (organiser) one-on-one. It was then I demanded to know the person they chatted with but they refused to show us the person. It was at that point that I insisted that we must call the telephone number on the flier.
Were you served any prior notice before the demolition of your facility?
There was no such thing. I just left the place (restaurant) to pump water when someone called me that I should check my restaurant to see what was happening and my response was that there was nothing happening and I told the person that I just left the restaurant to pump water. But the person insisted that I check, which I did. It was when I came to the roadside that I saw vans, military trucks, police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Civilian Joint Task Force and members of KASTELEA (Kaduna State Traffic and Environmental Law Enforcement Agency). The operation caused a lot of gridlock. I was just wondering how they would just come without a notice. Seeing this from afar, I broke down where I was because I couldn’t go there. Even my sister-in-law that went there was molested. They threatened to break her head with a stick.
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