Passion for football made me steal N15m gold, says CEO

Agbeh and Musa

Mr. Joseph Ogar Agbeh is a trained chef. Although he enjoys cooking, he fell in love with football after working with a football academy. 

Part of the academy’s attraction, was in connecting trainees to football clubs overseas. Agbeh later quit the academy to establish his own. He described himself as the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) and founder of Jokas Football Academy, based in Calabar, Cross Rivers.
Just like the former academy where he worked, his academy promised to train and take young hopeful footballers overseas in order to fix them in foreign clubs. The trainees however, have to pay certain fees for registration, says Agbeh.
He browsed the Internet and soon got connected to clubs willing and ready to accept young Nigerian footballers. The glitch in the supposed perfect set up was that Agbeh needed a whooping sum of money to actualise the overseas dream. After ruminating for days, he hit upon a plan.
He planned to use his ability as a cook to get access into a rich home. But the idea wasn’t as simple as he thought it. It would be later discovered that Agbeh had a criminal motive for yearning to work in a rich peoples’ homes. He went to an employment agency at the Ajah, Lekki area of Lagos and registered as applicant, seeking for the post of a chef and steward. He soon got an employment with a rich family.
Three days into his job, he stole his mistress’ jewelry, valued at N15 million and disappeared. Incidentally, the day Agbeh carted away his employers’ N15m gold, was also the day, his boss’ driver, disappeared with the man’s N6m Hyundai Sonata car.
Police believe Agbeh and the driver orchestrated the criminal plan together. Agbeh further described himself as the former chef of late Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu. According to him, he worked for late Ojukwu and Bianca as chef in 1998, but left because, “Ojukwu was too strict and harsh. He used to slash salaries as disciplinary measures. I was discouraged.”
Police said that the CEO stole the gold moments after his master developed a fever, collapsed and lost consciousness. Police alleged that Agbeh poisoned the man’s food in order to get him out of the way, so that he and the driver could carry out their criminal intentions. After he was employed as a cook in the rich man’s home, at Ajah, Agbeh was told his salary would be N50,000.
Asked why he settled for N50, 000, salary, especially since he was trying to raise millions of naira for air tickets and other stuff for trainees, Agbeh replied “I know that when I get to a rich man’s home, I’ll get money. I would steal.”
The police said that before Agbeh went to the employment agency to register, he had already made up his mind to be employed in a rich home and to steal from that home. Police are working on the theory that Agbeh, under the  guise of being a cook, had gained entry into many homes and carted away valuables.
The police said: “He normally applies as a steward and cook with employment agencies. The documents he tendered at the agencies are usually fake ones.
The forms he filled out are full of fake details. It took us over two months to track him after he ran away with the gold. We tried to follow the details he gave about himself to some employment agencies and discovered his home addresses were fake ones. When we finally tracked him down to Ogba, Ikeja, we recovered a bag from him.
The bag contained another employment form, which he collected from another agency. He had already filled it and gave another set of fake names and addresses. He even signed the guarantor part himself.” The police further said: “He claimed to have a football academy called Jokas Academy. He said he got N1m and used it to start sponsorship of Jokas Academy.
He said he was looking for money to take footballers out of the country. On September 4, he stole jewelry from his master’s house and went to Obalende, to sell them to one Amidu Musa, for N1m. Although he goes to employment agencies to apply for jobs, his main purpose is to gain access into rich peoples’ homes and steal. He focused on getting employment with families living in Ajah and VGC. After stealing, he would destroy all the SIM cards of his phones, so that nobody would be able to reach him.”
Musa denied knowing that the gold was stolen. The police argued that the gold was worth over N15m and as a dealer, Musa ought to know. But Musa bought the jewelry for just N1m and sold same to one Alhaji Yamu, a Benin Republic national, for N1.5m.
While explaining that this was the first jewelry business he would be doing with Agbeh, Musa said that he and Agbeh knew each other years ago, when Agbeh was living in Ije Police Barracks, Obalende, with his elder brother. “On September 4, Agbeh’s boss fell unconscious at home and was rushed to the hospital. When his boss was taken to hospital, Agbeh ransacked his master’s bedroom and wardrobe and found his mistress’s jewelry.
He carted them away. The mistress was overseas while this was happening,” said the police source. Narrating the genesis of his troubles, Agbeh said: “In life, we all have challenges. My challenge is Jokas Football Academy.
We market footballers. The academy, just like me, is based in Calabar. I came to Lagos three months ago, to process documents to Holland. Along the line, I needed money to process documents, which was why I applied for the job.” The suspect further explained: “I needed 15, 000 euros, to take about 20 players to Holland for a trial run. A club is already expecting us. An invitation had been sent to me to come down to Holland, to inspect their facility. Yes, my salary was N50,000, but I just needed money for advert and TV jingles to create awareness. I started the academy in 2011. I charged each footballer 900 euros.
They are, however, yet to pay. I’m still on my own. If the contract had gone through, it would have been my first deal.” Agbeh, who claimed to have secured the chef job in Ojukwu’s home, through the help of Ojukwu’s friend, one Mr. Innocent Morris, confessed he ransacked his boss’s room before he found the jewelry.
This drama unfolded in the home while kids and housemaid were in another wing of the house, unaware that Agbeh had a sinister motive when he left his kitchen duties and went upstairs, ostensibly to sweep his “Oga’s room,” a duty he had never performed until that fateful day. While admitting stealing the jewelry after his boss was rushed to hospital, Agbeh denied poisoning the man.