“We have never known what it means to miss a child until now. What kind of a heartless person will do this to a family? “Please help us; our hearts are broken. We have cried and cried so much we don’t know what to do anymore.”
These were the agonising words of Mr and Mrs Leke Orekoya whose three children were abducted by a housemaid, identified as Mary Akinloye, a day after she was employed.
Certainly, these are not the best of times for career mothers and fathers, who depend on housemaids to mind their kids and homes for them.
In Nigeria, housemaids are synonymous with nannies. Housemaids are not just expected to mind the home, cook, do laundry, they are also expected to mind the kids, including taking them to school and picking them after school hours.
Getting a good housemaid to employ these days has become as difficult as selling ice to the Eskimo. Even with the gross unemployment problem in Nigeria, people no longer fancy housemaid jobs.
However, those who want the job always seem to have ulterior, sinister motives; they either want to rob or kidnap their employers’ kids.
It has, however, become frightening as available record shows that abduction of masters’ kids by housemaids is steadily on the increase. Career parents are today faced with the herculean decision and choice of leaving their job to stay at home and watch over their kids.
The dire economic situation in Nigeria, coupled with the determination of loving parents to give their kids the best out of life, often make both parents to work.
They leave home in the morning and return at night, forcing the housemaids to become surrogate parents to the kids. There are also several cases of single mothers, who have to work to pay the bills. Many of them depend on strangers, otherwise dubbed housemaids to help them watch their kids and homes.
The most recent incident of a maid disappearing with her masters’ kids is the abduction of three brothers by Akinloye. The lady had barely spent 24 hours in their home when she struck. The kids are Aderomola, 11-month-old, Adedamola, four years old and Demola six years.
They were taken away from their Lawanson Road, Surulere, Lagos residence. The distraught parents, both bankers, identified as Mr. Leke Orekoya and Mrs Adebisi Orekoya, said the 23-year-old Akinloye, said to be an indigene of Ibadan, Oyo State, was contracted via OLX, an online sales portal.
Adebisi said that they had to seek a maid through OLX after their permanent maid went on annual leave and didn’t come back. “We urgently needed someone to assist because we were going to resume work on Monday.
We were disturbed and that was why I posted the information on OLX. “The maid called us and said she was interested. I agreed to employ her in the interim because I really did not like the fact that she was young. She agreed to collect between N10,000 and N15,000 even though our former nanny collected N25,000. “I left her at home this morning (Wednesday) around 7.30am. It was around 1pm that my eldest son called me and said she had taken his siblings away.
He said she told him they were going out to buy some things. She strapped the 11 months on her back and held the others by the hand. She has since not returned,” Adebisi was quoted as saying.
In the course of trying to employ her, the couple collected Akinloye’s relatives’ contact. The couple spoke with them on the telephone.
Since the lady’s disappearance, however, the supposed relatives’ phones had been switched off. In December 2014, a housemaid, Juliet, abducted her masters’ two kids at Gateway Crescent, Magodo, Isheri area of Lagos State.
Juliet, 24, disappeared with Rafael three and 15-month-old Michael. The boys were said to be nephews of a Nollywood actress, Kate Henshaw. The kids’ mother, Mrs Onajite Esharegharan, and her husband, Elvis, went for a shopping on the fateful day in celebration of the latter’s birthday.
It was learnt that the couple had instructed Juliet, who claimed she hails from Osun State, to lull the kids to sleep before they left home. It was when the couple came back home that the household discovered that the housemaid had bolted with the children.
Just like in the case of Akinloye, the Esharegharans had secured the services of Juliet through OLX, where a visitor, identified simply as Omolade, advertised.
“After we came back from the church, the children looked tired and I told Juliet to take Michael to bed while I went to do my hair. He had not slept when I came back. That day (Sunday) was my husband’s birthday and we decided to have a couple’s outing. We told her to take the children to bed immediately because they were very tired. “We got back home at 9pm. It was Abigail, the nurse, who opened the door for us. When we entered, everywhere was quiet and that was when my husband became suspicious because usually, our children would have rushed down from upstairs to say welcome,” Onajite recalled.
Again just like Akinloye’s relatives, Omolade’s phone suddenly became switched off.
The Esharegharans were, however, lucky. Apparently due to the intensity and searchlight beamed on the missing kids via security agencies, concerned Nigerians and the social media, the scared kidnappers, abandoned Michael and Rafael at a safe distance from Shagamu Police Station. In January 2015, another horrifying story came from Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
This time it was from the home of a pastor and his wife. They were devastated following the abduction of their little girl by their housemaid and security guard.
The story, which took over the social media at the time, said that the little girl belongs to Mr. and Mrs. Sepribo Whyte. The little girl’s name was not given. The husband and wife are members of Christ Chapel International Church, D/Line, Port Harcourt.
The story, on Emmanuel Nnadozie Onwubiko’s timeline, states: “The daughter was kidnapped by their house girl and gateman. They ran away with the couple’s daughter in Port Harcourt, Rivers State. Please pray for her and share this picture and be on the lookout.” The picture of the little girl was also shared on Maureen Uduak John’s timeline on January 15. Some Facebook friends sympathised and reacted angrily on the abduction. Over 400 people shared her picture from John’s timeline.
There are other several known and unknown cases. There are also maids who under the guise of working in homes of unsuspecting people organise robbery of their masters’ homes.
It was reported on April 9 that a maid, Esther Aniefiok, 23, stole valuables estimated at N4 million belonging to her boss, identified simply as Mrs Abiola. Abiola, residing at Ifako, Lagos, said she employed Aniefiok on March 30 through an agent, Anthony Akpan, and she agreed to pay her N18,000 per month. She said the suspect was wellbehaved and never showed any evil trait, until she broke into her room on April 6. Aniefiok was alleged to have made away with gold jewellery, including a wedding band and engagement ring, wristwatches, shoes, clothing items, a phone and about N100,000 cash. Mr Afam Nriezedi, arrested in February 2015 for kidnapping and hacking into bank accounts by the police, credited his exploits to housemaids and houseboys.
He said: “Most times, to get victims’ cheques to use in moving money from accounts, we use people in victims’ homes.
The cheques are from houseboys, housemaids and drivers. It is mostly from people who work in the victim’s home. “There are several men who used to go and bring girls to Lagos for housemaids. The girls are not really housemaids. The men brought them to monitor the home. These girls and boys are the ones who will bring the cheques as directed.
“They appeared to be working for their madam or boss, but they are working for the people who brought them from the villages and planted them in those homes.”
Security experts insisted that it was likely that Akinloye was also Juliet, since their modus of operandi was the same. Others said that these deadly and desperate ladies belong to syndicate interested in trafficking kids, to rich folks desperate for the fruit of the womb, now resorting to adoption.
They could also be hunting for kids for ritual purposes, but mostly for ransom. The security experts said that security agents should begin to actively investigate OLX.
The incident in Uganda, which left the world gasping in shock, showed that kids in the hands of maids are endangered species. In footage on the social medial, a two-year-old girl is tortured by a maid identified as Jolly Tumuhiirwe, 22.
The video reveals a breath-taking story where Tumuhiirwe is trying to feed the baby, Arnella Kamanzi.
The sick baby exhibits difficulty in coping with the rough and speedy rate at which Tumuhiirwe feeds her. The baby could not contain the stuffed food down her throat. She throws up. This invited Tumuhiirwe’s wrath. She landed a hot slap on the kid before throwing her off the sofa, her face hitting the floor.
She remained there for a few seconds before Tumuhiirwe followed with kicks and stomping. A court later jailed Tumuhiirwe for torturing the baby girl. There is no doubt that maids are now necessary evil.
How do parents ensure security of their kids and homes? According to Dr Ernest Ugiagbe of the Sociology and Anthropology Department of Edo State University, who earlier spoke with New Telegraph, when it comes to hiring domestic helps, the masters, mostly the madams, should be ‘extremely nice’ to the nannies. Ugiagbe said they should use the psychological approach in selecting and dealing with their domestic helps.
He added: “Most importantly, they should be prayerful and watchful as well.”
The Department of State Security (DSS), Lagos State Command, in conjunction with the Lagos State Security Council, in a document made available to New Telegraph, urged members of the public to take security measures into cognizance when hiring domestic helps. Steps to take in hiring house helps are; always sensitise members of your family on security tips gained through security awareness, sensitise family members on emerging threats against human health as well as new crime trends, endeavour to vet and re-vet domestic staff through the service of DSS.
People who intend to employ maids are urged to write to the director of DSS on their intention. According to the statement, the DSS will run a security check that could last a week, depending on the data supplied by the intended worker and boss.
Also speaking on the issue, a security expert, Dr Ona Ekhomu, said it was a totally imprudent act for someone to hire helpers or workers and entrust children to them without having good knowledge of who those people were.
According to him, before a person entrusts his/her children to another person, there is need to conduct a background check. He said: “You don’t need to call anybody to do that for you, you can do it yourself. When somebody comes to work in your home or look after your children, it must be well documented.
That is to know people who know them, so that if something goes wrong, you can hold those people responsible. “You must have their photographs, you must document them properly, their names, addresses, villages, parents and siblings – you must write these things down. “Normally, in my office, we have employment form. But in this case you don’t need a form; you just write them down in a piece of paper and also take them to the police station and take fingerprints.
If they complain, tell them that it is your screening procedure. According to Ekhomu, who is the president of the Association of Industrial Security and Safety Operators of Nigeria (AISSON), children are the most important assets so they should not be entrusted into the care of a total stranger. He said: “Your important assets are your children, not your houses or cars. You know your children are your future; they are the only things that make you not to be forgotten in life.
“They (maids) know you don’t know their details or anything about them so they do away with anything they want. We know we live in a modern society; everyone wants to be an island unto himself. But we should also know that crime is a product of opportunity and crime happens because people have the opportunity. So you have to beg your neighbour, ‘please can you keep checking my children and if anything happens, please call me.’
“You have to sometimes surrender that authority because of the situation we find ourselves. In the modern world now, wife is working, husband is working and children are alone, someone has to take care of these children.”
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