A 26-year-old housemaid, Franker Amaha, has been arrested by operatives of Inspector General of Police Special Intelligence Response Team, for stealing the sum of N1.6million in foreign currencies from her employer, six hours after she was employed.
The Cross River State born suspect was said to have approached an agent for housemaid job on July 24, 2019, and supplied the agent with fake names, address and fake guarantor and the agent after shoddy background check, got her a job at the home of one Mrs Taiye in Masha area of Surulere Lagos State on July 25, 2019.
Two hours into her new job, Amaha accompanied her boss to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, where they had gone to pick up her madam’s sister who was returning into the country from a trip abroad. On arriving their home, Amaha, was said to have sneaked into the room where the luggage of her madam’s sister was kept and stole the sum of $2,800; 1000 British Pounds and 2000 Dutch Guilder and fled the house. This incident which happened six hours after Amaha was employed, left her boss and her sister in deep confusion.
They reported the matter to the police in Surulere but Amaha could not be located as her mobile lines were switched off while her address and that of her guarantor turned out to be fake.
A distraught Mrs Taiye, was said to have alerted the Inspector General of Police, Mohammed Adamu and operatives of the IRT, headed by Deputy Commissioner of Police Abba Kyari, was directed to track down the fleeing housemaid. A crack team from the Lagos office of the IRT, was thereafter deployed and few days into their assignment, they apprehended Amaha in the home of one of her friends in Ajah area of Lagos State.
Meanwhile a source who took part in the operation disclosed to Vanguard that, “This girl was formerly working with wife of former IGP Mike Okiro, as a housemaid, her name is Franker but she ran away only to show up again in Lagos and went to an agent and told the agent that she needed a job as a house help. She went to the agent on the 24th July and the agent asked that she should fill a form and get a guarantor and also fill in his phone number and name. Because she had a plan, she filled the form with a fake name and she attached a fake passport on the form. She identified herself as Esther whereas she is known as Franker.
On the 25th July, which was the next day, she was taken to the house of one Mrs. Taiye, at Masha, Surulere, to work as a house help and she was offered to be paid N20,000. Incidentally, a sister to the woman who she was going to work with was to return to the country from oversee on that same day and she followed her new boss to the airport to pick up her sister. When they got home, the house help entered the room where her boss’s sister’s bags were kept, opened them and stole all the foreign currencies which include, $2800, 1000 pounds and 200 Dutch guilder and she left the house immediately.
When the security man at the gate tried to stop her she told him that she had problems with the madam but as the security man tried to confirm from their madam what was happening she took a bike and zoomed off. She ran to Ajah to meet one of her friends and threw away her sim cards. The next day which was on the 26th July she went to Ikoyi and changed some of the foreign currencies” When Amaha was interviewed she said she stole the money from her boss because she needed money to treat her sick mother.
Narrating her story she said; “I came to Lagos in 2014 and I worked for Mrs Tina Okiro, I got the job through an agent, one Mr Sunday from Ogoja and while she was paying me N20,000 monthly, she also enrolled me in Lagos State Polytechnic Isolo, and was paying my school fees. But after staying for two and a half years she started complaining that I was keeping late at school and I was no longer performing my house chores. So, because she was complaining too much I left her house and went into the street and engaged in prostitution. But when my brother heard what I was doing he called me back home, so I went to the village and I also spent some time with my brothers in Onitsha.
I later came back to Lagos and I worked with a woman in Ikorodu as a house help for three months before I went back to the village and started farming. I came to Lagos again to look for job to raise money. I approached one Mr Frank who was a job agent who led me to one Mr. Ade who in turn linked me to the woman in Surulere. Before I started working for the woman she told me about herself, what my job entailed and my salary would be paid through my agent. But I gave her fake name and fake address because I had the intention of stealing from her. So I got to the woman’s house around 12 noon and we went to the airport around 3:30pm to pick her sister and we packed all the woman’s luggage. I opened the luggage and took money from it. I stole a total of $700 and 100 pounds. I changed $100 which I used to make my hair and bought a new sleepers and I deposited the remaining money into my account”.
