Operatives of the Lagos State Rapid
Response Squad (RRS), a unit of the Lagos State Police Command, have smashed a
cartel which specialized in planting house helps in homes, in order to use them
to steal and rob their employers.
The man at the centre of the cartel
is Francis Okputu, (37), a former drycleaner operator. Okputu was alleged to
have left his dry cleaning job, to take to sourcing house helps for wealthy
families.
It was further gathered that Okputu
used to go rural areas to get the girls, which he later distributes to
different homes as house helps.
Police alleged that Okputu used to
plant the girls as maids in wealthy folks homes, ostensibly to use them steal
from their employers.
The suspect charade was blown open
after he tried to make one of his girls, Joy Onoz, to steal foreign currencies
and gold jewelry from her mistress. Rather than comply, Onoz ran to her
mistress and spilled the bean. They both decided to set a trap for Okputu.
According to the police, Okputu and
his wife were both running the cartel business.
Okputu, whose mode of operation and
agreement with the job seekers was to assist them get house help jobs, where
they will work as domestic servants. According to Okputu, he used to collect
half of the girls’ salaries for the first month as commission fee. He confessed
to have been doing this since 2003, predominantly on the Lagos Mainland.
He also admitted that every year, he
used to install at least 15 domestic servants in different homes. He claimed
that he had to upgrade his method of making money, when his finances could no
longer meet his needs.
The suspect said: “I have been
helping Lagosians get house helps and everybody in my neighbourhood knows that’s
what I do. They also make recommendations and link me with their relatives who
need my services. Sometimes in May this year, a friend directed Joy Onoz to me
to help her get a housemaid job, which I did. Everything was fine until the following
month when Joy began to call me, complaining that her mistress didn’t like her.
She said that she would like me to help him do something about it.”
Okputu, getting to know that Onoz’s
madam was wealthy, began to find means of stealing from the woman. He called Onoz
one day and warned her not to speak English throughout their conversation.
During their interaction, he told
her to steal her madam’s money, jewelry and also help him get her picture. He
wanted the items to be delivered to him at an undisclosed place.
He told Onoz that the gold jewelry
would be replaced with copper, and that he would take the picture to a
prophetess, who would help him bewitch and make her not to question any of
Onoz’s actions.
A Police source said: “Joy quickly
told her madam of Francis’s plans and they played along with his arrangement.
The mistress gave Joy some hard currencies, jewelry and her picture. Francis,
unaware of the thickening plot against him, instructed Joy to meet him at
Iyana-Ipaja to handover the loots to him. He promised to arrange how to get the
fakes across to her by doing imitations of the jewelry to avoid any suspicion.
Officers, who had been contacted by the employer swung into action and laid
siege for Francis at the agreed location. He was caught and arrested after receiving
the loots from Joy.”
After his arrest, the Decoy team of
RRS visited some housemaid whom Okputu had installed in different part of the state,
to question them and find out if Okputu at any time asked them to steal
valuables from their employers. The RRS team also advised them to stay away
from crime.
The police also visited the said
prophetess, who was to help Okputu to hypnotize Onoz’s mistress. The prophetess
disclosed that the last time she saw him was in February 2018 when he came for
prayer and ask her to help hypnotize a woman who employed one of his clients.
The prophetess explained that she turned down his demand, and sent him out the
church. She told him that her church doesn’t indulge in such practice.
Recovered from Okputu were $15
dollar notes, sets of gold jewelry worth N450, 000 and a picture.
The Lagos State Commissioner of
Police, Adamu Muazu, has directed that the case be transferred to the State Criminal
Intelligence and Investigations Department (SCIID). The CP advised Lagosians to
be conscious of whom they employ as domestic servants in order to avoid theft
of their hard-earned valuables.
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