Interview

Why Celebrities hire Limousine for Events — Ibadan Big Boy, Yinka Lewis Carew + Funny things they do inside the Limo

August 13, 2015

The GDA inside the Limo Car

He is cool, calm and collected. His
name is Olayinka Lewis Carey, a
Business Administration graduate of Bowen
University who decided to go into the business of car hiring services after
he graduated from school four years ago.

His company Color Varies Car Hire Services which started in Lagos three and a
half years ago later went into Limousine car hires services with premium
chatter services for top notch individuals and celebrities in the society
including movie makers.

Today, with an office in Ikolaba area of Ibadan, they have
become the Number 1 Limousine service company in the city. The soft spoken big
boy was the cynosure of all eyes recently when he gave a befitting chauffer
service to wife of former minister of Police Affairs, General David Medayese Jemibewon; Chief (Mrs.) Dupe Jemibewon from Ibadan to Orin Ekiti in Ekiti state South West Nigeria where the
cream-de-la-cream of Nigerian society pulled over to attend her late father, Chief John Bosede Ajayi’s funeral on Saturday August 8th 2015. The
addition of the Limo car to the convoy of cars that led the hearse of Baba Ajayi to Orin Ekiti gave color to the event and equally brought all eyes in Ibadan and Orin Ekiti on the Limo car which gave the event the desired
celebrity status in the country side home of the Ajayis. Your Africa’s number 1
celebrity encounter blog Asabeafrika
had an encounter with Mr. Carew in
company of the car’s engineer, Engineer
Raphael inside the Limo car at Orin.
It was quite a revealing encounter. Enjoy the excerpts first on your Africa’s
number 1 Celebrity encounter blog Asabeafrika.

The GDA Inspect the Limo Car @ Ibadan before take off

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Your Limousine car hiring services is
said to be a one stop company in Ibadan and today you specially ferried Chief
Mrs. Dupe Jemibewon to Orin Ekiti, can you tell us about yourself?

My name is Olayinka Lewis Carew I am from Ibadan
in Oyo State. Yes, Chief (Mrs.) Dupe
Jemibewon is one of our high profile
clients; we ferried her to her father’s burial ceremony here in Orin
Ekiti. Our service complemented
the hearse that ferried the remains of her great dad, Baba John Bosede Ajayi. The event actually started in Ibadan and it has been
a very great experience altogether.

“Secondly,
we also wanted to dispel the common belief that it is only the high and mighty
or rich and well-to-do that can hire a Limo for a fee; no, ordinary people can
equally hire a Limo at a price that is very friendly with their income”.

So, how did you start the Limo
service in Ibadan?

We actually
started our business in Lagos with the name C-Varies which is an abbreviation for Color Varies Car Hire Services.
We offer our services for weddings, celebrity engagements and any high profile
events and at times we have artistes who hire our Limo for their movies. And because of the saturated market in
Lagos we decided to extend our services to Ibadan because we did a research and
discovered there was nothing like that in Ibadan
and we discovered that people of Ibadan
land equally have a high taste for quality event and services. So, we decided
to extend our services to Ibadan and luckily for us, we found
a market in Ibadan. Secondly, we also wanted to dispel the common belief that
it is only the high and mighty or rich and well-to-do that can hire a Limo for a fee; no, ordinary people
can equally hire a Limo at a price
that is very friendly with their income.

The GDA with Dance Queen Tessy Alero Yembra & The Nation’s Newspaper Paul Ukpabio takes a picture beside the Limo

Mr. Olayinka Lewis Carew host the GDA to a Bailey Toast inside the confines of the Limousine

Are you saying your services are
affordable to all Nigerians irrespective of class?

People need
not to be afraid in the sense that we have class regulated services for various
classes of individuals. You don’t have to be a rich man or rich woman to get us
chauffer you on your wedding day. It is negotiable, all you need do is visit us
and we show you our rates. We have an intra city rate and we equally have an
intercity rate. For example, if you are to use our Limo services in Ibadan
there is a rate you pay for the entire day or number of days you want to use
the service and if it is out of Ibadan
or outside Oyo state, we charge you
what we call ‘Out-Station-Rate” which means we are taking you out of the city
of resident of the car. So, we have various charges and I can tell you it is
not expensive. We are very considerate and we equally give discount. All you
need do is call, visit and find out.

Can you tell us the cheapest rate you
take for a city ride, I mean within the city?

That is
highly confidential, it is our business strategy and rating your business in
public can be professionally injurious.

The GDA inspecting the Limousine

While travelling from Ibadan to Orin
Ekiti yesterday, we had drinks from your bar area and there was equally
Television entertainment, is that the only thing we can get?

Well, that
is the trademark of a Limousine car. It is all about
leisure and pleasure. One, it makes you feel comfortable because it is a roomy
car. Secondly, it gives you a homely impression, you feel like you are in your
sitting room or your bed room. You have your choice of drinks, your choice of
movie, and your choice of music if you desire; and part of our service is to
give you a free drink, free snack and other variables that will make your
journey interesting. It is a home-on-wheels and that is the kind of treatment
we accord our clients.

“Whenever it takes off, then it moves
especially on the high way. There is no stopping. The velocity is high because
it moves like a jet. So, it is a land jet. A limousine is a land jet”.

The CEO, C-Varies Limo Services, Olayinka Lewis Carew give a toast to the GDA as Engineer Raphael looks on

Chief (Mrs.) Modupe Jemibewon makes contact inside her Limo Ride

Do you allow people to do things like
kissing their brides and having general fun inside the Limo compartment?

For the
duration of the journey, you are permitted to display a magnitude of leisure.
For instance if you are a wedded couple, there is every possible means for you
two to display your affection; as the director of the voyage I have no
authority over your emotions. My own brief is to take you from your take-off
point and drop you at your desired destination; we don’t assume power over
people’s emotion. We allow you to display your emotion to the best of your
knowledge. Some people even hire our Limo
to just give themselves a treat; maybe a wedding treat or an anniversary
celebration or whatever. If you are a duly married couple you could exchange kisses;
you could hug as that shows sign of love. That is the limit you can go; you can
pop a cup of wine, chilled wine, watch movies, listen to a good music and enjoy
the bar area of the Limo. Of course it will be very absurd if you go extra mile
doing other stuff. But for the duration of time you chatter the Limo, you have
the experience to your self alone. You can even have a business meeting in the
car while the journey lasts.

Tell us a bit about you?

I studied
business administration at Bowen
University and I have had couple of experiences here and there before I
went into car hire services and Limousine
rental.

Chief (Mrs.) Modupe Jemibewon finds comfort inside her Limo Ride

The Limo Car inside the Ikolaba High School Compound before taking off

Can you tell us a bit about your
clients?

We have
various categories of clients. We have the upper class clients, the society big
wigs like Chief (Mrs.) Dupe Jemibewon
who enjoy our services from time to time and we also have the celebrities,
actors and actresses who come from time to time to hire our Limo for their high end movie projects.
In fact, the organizer of the Movie Grammy Academy Award is one of
our prime clients. I am talking of Mr.
Tunde Oshinibosi also known as LAFACE, his organization is a regular
client. They have used our Limo in Ibadan
for their event and they equally invited us to Oshogbo for another event.
So, we have our clients in every strata of society and I think hiring a Limo for your activity is a good
perception. If you want to make a statement with your event then hire a Limo.

“If you are a duly married couple you
could exchange kisses; you could hug as that shows sign of love. That is the
limit you can go; you can pop a cup of wine, chilled wine, watch movies, listen
to a good music and enjoy the bar area of the Limo. Of course it will be very
absurd if you go extra mile doing other stuff”.

Mr. Olayinka Lewis Carew (R) with his Engineer, Raphael poses with the GDA after arriving at Orin Friday Evening

Asabeafrika’s GDA Poses with the Limo Car at Orin High School Compound, Orin Ekiti

While driving through with you
yesterday, I noticed the level of speed and despite the bad roads, you were
able to reach destination within 180 minutes. What is responsible for this?

You see a Limo is more or less like a jet. If you
look at it, it comes with tires and a form of low, low in height but it has the
ferocity of a jet. Whenever it takes off, then it moves especially on the high
way. There is no stopping. The velocity is high because it moves like a jet.
So, it is a land jet. A limousine is a land jet.

The Woman of Valor, Chief (Mrs.) Modupe Jemibewon giing direction to friends & Associates from the comfort of her Limo

So, how do you manage the effect of
bad roads on the car considering the terrible condition of our road network?

It is a fact
that we have bad road network in Nigeria and that is one of the reason why we
charge higher for our inter-state services than the intra-state service. We
spend quality money on maintenance and we also try to let people know that a Limo is a luxury car. It is a light
car. A luxurious car and we try to let our clients know this before take off.
If you load the car with varieties of goods, you will harm the work rate
because it is a low-level but fast moving car. A snaky car; the concept of the
car is snaky. Yesterday while leaving Ibadan some people were making jest of me
saying I should find a crane to lift the car to Orin Ekiti and if it hangs on the pole while lifting it, I should
be ready to bear the consequence. They said ‘oh, because of the various bends,
you wont be able to make it’ and I said ‘fine, you just watch and see the way
we drive it’. Of course, we have terrible road network but we also have our
strategy. We always have our engineer, Mr.
Raphael who is always on board with us. Whenever I am driving a long
distance with the car, we go together as he is the certified engineer for the
car. He understands the car and with him on board, it is like having a Co-Pilot.
We are a solution driven company.

The Limo Car takes off with Chief (Mrs.) Modupe Jemibewon from Catholic Church of the Asscension, Bodija GRA, Ibadan

So, what do you want to say to
Nigerians who are reading this story and might likely want to have the Limo
treatment for their events?

Let me tell
you, Limousine is a lovely car which
will always highlight your occasion. Everyone will come around to look and
admire the car and by that your status will jump up. I will advise people to
always consider a Limo for their
wedding ceremonies. It makes your wedding colorful and equally makes the convoy
more exciting and exotic. And the price
if you try to find out might not be as big as a quarter of what you spend on
your party meals.