Saved by Hunters: When hook-up goes wrong

2026-03-07 - 07:46

By Jimitota Onoyume, Assistant News Editor Miss Anthonia (name withheld) was lucky to come back alive from the land of the dead. Not many who saw that place were lucky like her. It would have been a journey of no return for her but for divine providence that stepped in. In a video that trended, she told some hunters a few days ago how she found herself tied to a tree in a forest around Akpobi junction in Sapele Local Government Area, Delta state. An apparition in the distance The hunters were on their routine operations that night in the bush when they stumbled on her. She was tied to a tree at that spot. They were not sure what it was. They beamed their torches on what looked like an apparition in the distance. Behold, it was a weak Anthonia, tied to a tree, that they saw. Still tied to the tree, the hunters needed to be sure how she got there and how she got tied to the tree. She responded to the questions from the hunters between 9 and 10 that night. My story – by Anthonia She said she came for a hook-up job that went awry. Her words: “I am From Ughelli. I have been chatting with somebody online and he said I should meet him in Sapele. I don’t know this area well. When I met him we started coming. He was with another person that was like his friend. I complained that the place w a s g e t t i n g too far and he said we were almost at his place. Suddenly his friend held my mouth and they dragged me into this bush. They carried me from the Akpobi junction.” According to her, the boys took her phone and ordered her to submit the password to her account from where they transferred one hundred thousand naira which she had in her account. “Later, they told me that they were going to bring their second target who was waiting at the same Akpobi junction.” Hook-up culture Her story is a reflection of how desperate some of the young ones now identified as Gen Z generation are for quick money. Madam Comfort Aweruosuo, a housewife, said girls will never learn. She said Antonia was fortunate but she can’t pretend not to have heard stories of how several other girls were slaughtered by young boys for money rituals in the name of hookup. “A person who came for a hookup has lost one hundred thousand naira to the guys. Young girls nowadays and the risk they take for money. “We in Sapele did not know things like this happen in the bush around the area she was found. My advice to other girls and even this one that was rescued is that she should But will they listen,” she chuckled. Vanguard gathered that hookup has become a euphemism for prostitution among young girls. Even some young married women are into it. Usually there is a “talking stage” in any erotic relationship where parties get to know each other. But in hookup settings, the talk is all about how much the male partner is ready to part with for fun. They often meet online. A high percentage of girls lose their lives in the process. Brothels used to be the place to go for commercial sex but this is fast fading away. And being replaced with online dating. ‘Yahoo boys’ Ovo, a student at the Delta State University, Abraka, Ethiope East local government area, said many Yahoo guys now go for “hookup”. And they meet the targets online. They prefer hookup because the girls go about with their phones where they have their bank accounts. “Many guys prefer hookups. Girls go about with their phones. Yes, usually they will come with the small ones we call Torchlight phones that don’t have their accounts the first time they meet you in a hotel. But when you make them relax and feel safe, the next time when they come they bring their big phones. “That is when the guys strike. They clear all the money in the phones and abandon the girl tied on the bed in the hotel room,” Ovo said. “In some cases worse things can be done to the girls in the hotel rooms,” he added. He said Anthonia was just given a second chance by God, adding that probably her organs could have been harvested that night. Vanguard News