Operatives of the Special Anti- Robbery Squad (SARS) of the Lagos State Police Command have arrested a fleeing domestic worker who stole his boss’s vehicle and other valuables in the Lekki area of the state.
During preliminary investigation, the suspect, Nicolas Ifedayo, a Ghanaian, who was arrested in his hideout in Benue State, was discovered to have also stolen his Nigerian girlfriend’s Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card from which he withdrew all the cash via mobile transfer.
Vanguard gathered that his boss, a female lawyer told all her staff to go on vacation on December 24, 2019, and resume in January but Ifedayo, the private guard, insisted he would stay back.
Unknown to his boss, he had duplicated keys to some of the offices.
The next day, December 25, 2019, he zoomed off in his boss’s Honda jeep with plate number AKD 787 BB, loaded with some power generating sets, refrigerator, laptops, and other valuables.
However, he was tracked to Ipelo village in the Ogbadigbo local government area of Benue State on January 8.
The suspect, who was paraded by Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Hakeem Odumosu, at the command headquarters in Ikeja, alongside other robbery suspects arrested by the Lagos State Police Command, said the evil spirit was responsible for his action.
He said: “ I was employed in August 2019 and was paid N30,000 monthly. I don’t know what came over me. I have been working for four months. It is not my fault. An evil spirit is tormenting me. It was after I did it that I realized I had made a mistake. That same evil spirit prevented my father from training me in a secondary school as I was forced to drop out of school in Junior Secondary School 3.
“I went into wielding but could not raise money to buy the tools needed for the job.”
“I drove straight to Benue State, my mother’s village, where I sold some of the things. I remained there with the intention of starting a new life, only to be arrested by the police.”
Asked how he withdrew money from his girlfriend’s account, he replied: “Her SIM card has been with me because she did not have a phone. She was using mine. On the day I was leaving, I told her to wait for me in my apartment at my workplace on the day I left with the vehicle. I gave her N4,000 but did not tell her I won’t be coming back. I bought a recharge card worth N28,000 from her account. I am sorry for everything, it is not my fault.”
Odumosu advised Lagosians in particular and Nigerians, in general, to always ensure they took a profile of their domestic staff with the police before engaging them.
He said the suspect would be charged to court.
@ Vanguard Newspaper
