It was an endless tale of tears and regrets at the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Lagos State Police Command, during the week as Tunde Ajibike, a 27-year-old security man, narrated how he organised his friends to rob his boss, Mrs Onyeka Uzoamaka, at her Ago Palace Way residence recently.
The suspect had engaged his friends to rob the boss for allegedly treating him and other domestic workers in the house as ‘slaves’.
To teach the boss a lesson of her life, he, with detailed information he had gathered from one of the aggrieved maids, Angela, invited his robber-friends to rob the unsuspecting boss. Unfortunately for him, Kelewu, the leader of the gang, mistakenly called his name to get a vital information in the course of robbing the victim.
With this, the victim became suspicious that her guard could be in the know of the attack.
Crying like a baby, the suspect, who is currently cooling off in the cell, narrated how he met his waterloo.
“My trouble started when Angela, the house maid, started gossiping about the family. She said that madam’s husband travels a lot and that gave her the full power to treat domestic workers as ‘slaves’ and that she never gave her a penny as pocket money.
“Angela was the one that used to give me food. She was the one that brought the idea to set the madam up. She said they had money but very stingy. She told me to arrange robbers to rob the woman now that her husband had travelled. The arrangement started last year.
“To get this done, I contacted my close friend in the secondary school, named Suraju. He later introduced Kelewu to me. Angela told me to collect the mobile numbers of all those that would do the operation that fateful day, which I did. She even talked to them on phone before we struck.”
Continuing, he said: “On the 28th January between 4 and 8pm, they were within the vicinity. They came in the afternoon and stayed inside the compound near the generator side because Angela insisted on seeing their faces. We sat near the water tank. They did not come with weapons. They only used the cutlass and the kitchen knife the family gave me to use in guarding the house.
“Shortly after, Kelewu called for action. He wanted the operation to start on time as planned. Three of us entered her room at the same time but I took a step backward for her not to recognise me. The gang members did not know that her husband was not around. They were erroneously not told and as a result, they expected to meet him at home hoping to collect a reasonable sum of money, including hard currencies from him.
“When they were rough-handling madam, I stepped in and started begging them not to beat her up. When they entered the living room through the parlour, they started asking the woman for money and the whereabouts of her husband. In the course of doing that, Kelewu foolishly called my name asking me where the husband was. Goose pimples covered my whole body when he called my name. at that point, I knew that I was in for big trouble. In order not to show my frustration, I managed to tell Kelewu that I did not know her husband’s whereabouts.”
In spite of the injury on the victim’s head, Ajibike denied that they attacked her with sharp objects, saying: “The woman had the wound a day before the operation. It was a plywood in the compound that caused the wound. We did not use a gun. It was the cutlass I used in guarding the compound and a kitchen knife that Angela gave me that the gang used to threaten the woman.
“Nobody was wounded that fateful day. That is the truth. I am an armed robbery suspect because of the tight position I found myself. I committed the offence and I cannot lie. We did not use gun and we did not wound anybody. A robber does not lie in this circumstance. It has happened and there is nothing I can do about it.”
Explaining how he secured the job to guard the house, he said: “I was into private security work before I was employed as a security guard in madam’s compound. It was Angela, a house maid to Madam Onyeka, that helped me to secure the job. I only worked for the woman for 15 days.
“ I knew her when I went to treat her dog. I used to go to that house with a veterinary doctor whom I had been living with. I started following him to work to learn how to handle dogs. It was on one of the occasions that I followed the doctor to madam’s house that I overheard them discussing that they needed a dog handler. I later told the woman that I could handle her dogs better than the veterinary doctor and she promised to give me the job.
“When she noticed that I could also do security work, she employed me to be her gateman. She told me to handle the dog the way that it would be very powerful, which I accepted. I told the woman to talk to my boss, the doctor.
“I was posted to the security post near the gate as the security guard. I worked with one Joseph. I was placed on a monthly salary of N20,000 monthly, while she was paying Joseph N12,000. She also gave me accommodation and food. I was also their gardener. They were feeding me three times a day but I did not come to Lagos to eat only food. Apart from the agreed salary, she used to give me pocket money like N500, N1,000 or more in a week. The family was very good to me.’’
the state command’s spokesperson, Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Ken Nwosu, said: ‘’It is a case of conspiracy and armed robbery.’’ Nwosu said the gang collected a sum of N100,000 and other valuables from the victim.
‘’Thorough investigation is currently ongoing to do justice to the case before charging the suspect to court.
“I assure you that the case will be properly investigated and anyone found to be involved in committing the crime will be charged to court at the end of the discreet investigation,” he added.