Househelp Steals £3,350 From Boss in Magodo, Lagos

Twenty-year-old Uweb Samuel, a Cross River State
indigene working as a domestic help in Magodo
area of Lagos, sat on the grounds of the Lagos
State Police Command Headquarters, Ikeja, with
his head bowed.

Shaking his head intermittently to register remorse,
Uweb said he did not imagine he would end up the
way he had.
“My boss trusted me so much. In fact, I had
access to every part of the house,” he said.
But that trust came back to bite his boss, Mr. Ajadi
Babatunde, few days ago when he came back from
a trip abroad and left a wad of pound sterling
notes in his room.

He trusted his
manservant so much that he left the house but left
his key on the door of his room.
That day, Babatunde took a peek inside the room
and saw something he could not resist.
“I counted the £50 notes and there were 67 there,”
he said.
That is £3,350. In current official exchange rate of
pounds to naira, that amounts to N1.33m.
Samuel said he knew it was a lot of money that
could change his life, but thought about building a
house immediately.

He said, “There is no house in our village in
Calabar that my siblings and I could call a home.
So, I thought it was my chance to build a house
for my family.
“I took the money before my boss came back
home and took it to my sister’s husband to hide
for me.

“When my boss came back and started to look for
the money, he asked me and I told him I did not
see any money. Even though it was just the two of
us in the house, I insisted I did not take any
money.
“Some workers were doing some renovation work
in the compound. He asked if any of them entered
the house but they said no. The workers said I
must have been the one who took the money and
started to beat me.
“They tortured me even though my boss did not
instruct them to do that. I still did not admit that I
took it. But when it got to a stage, I told them I
would kill myself, my boss then told them to take
me to the police. But his brother came and spoke
with me gently, that was why I decided to
confess.”

By the time the police stormed the house of
Samuel’s brother-in-law, half of the money was
gone, while the man had gone into hiding.
Samuel sobbed as he said he was sad that he
betrayed his boss’ trust.
According to him, he was being paid N15,000
monthly as a domestic help but that his crime had
nothing to do with his salary.

“I wish my boss would forgive me. I did not know
this is what will happen to me,” he said.
The police have said investigation was ongoing on
the case and the suspect would soon be charged
to court.