Biodun Stephen, the popular Nollywood filmmaker, has lamented about the rate at which thugs and area boys exhorted her film production crew in Lagos.
Biodun narrated the incident in a video shared via Instagram, in which she added that one of her crew members was almost stabbed by the “area boys” in Lagos.
The movie director said they were accosted and extorted by some area boys after their car broke down on the road.
While recalling the incident, Biodun called on the Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, and the chairman of the Lagos State branch of the National Union of Road Transport Workers, MC Oluomo to intervene and put a stop to the constant intimidation.
She said: “I want to speak to our governor, I don’t know if it is something that is within his jurisdiction. I want to appeal to honourable Musilu MC Oluomo. These area boys are becoming a problem, if your car breaks down they just came out of nowhere. Today we went to shoot and the bus broke down. The moment the bus broke down, there were area boys from different places, why did the bus break down, this is their area, and we parted with the first five thousand.
“We pushed the vehicle to a filling station, and the filling station manager collected three thousand naira, they said we could no longer park the vehicle there, that he just took us to where we can park and look for a mechanic but the mechanic could not fix the vehicle so we were forced to push it out.
“When we pushed it out some boys showed up saying that they gave Fadeyi boys money, they are Shmolou boys, and they nearly stabbed one of my crew members.”
While explaining the situation, the filmmaker who could no longer hold back her emotions, flared up and called on the government to intervene on the matter.
Captioning the video, Biodun Stephen wrote: “As of now; we have parted with 22k to area boys just because our bus broke down. If we stand by watching, na we all go suffer am. I’m calling on the government to please deliver us from Area Boys!!!!! I am begging.”