An 18-year-old housemaid who stole her boss’s N1.5 million within two and half hours of being employed has been arrested alongside her accomplices, her 30-year-old stepfather, Gabriel Igbang and her mother Joy.
The maid that goes by the name Happiness Gabriel, was alleged to have stolen the money at her employer’s residence in Lagos, then proceeded to a bush in Ogun State to bury her loot, before running away to Benin, the Edo State capital.
It was gathered that Happiness was engaged by Mrs Bolanle Ibukunoluwa sometimes in May 2016, through one Alhaja popularly known as Iya Dolapo, as a housemaid and the monthly salary agreed upon was N7, 000 to be paid at the end of the year.
On June 26, 2016, at about 5:30 p.m., the maid (Happiness) moved into her employer’s house, on that fateful day, the woman (Mrs Bolanle) went out and came back at about 8:00pm only to discover that her new house-help is nowhere to be found.
She forced the gate opened and then discovered that her Lenovo phone valued at N20, 000 and the N1.5m she kept in her room was nowhere to be found. She rushed immediately to her neighbour’s place to ask about the whereabouts of her housemaid and they told her she left before 8:00 p.m. She later went to report the incident at Central Police Station.
Happiness was later apprehended at Benin, where she ran to, after giving her step father the money she stole.
At first, her stepfather and her mother denied receiving any money from her, after much interrogation they all confessed and Happiness took the police to the bush in Ogun State where the sum of N300, 000 was recovered and another N252, 500 was also recovered at another location in the bush at Ogun State.
Delivering her judgement, Magistrate Omoyele found the first defendant guilty of conspiracy and stealing and consequently sentenced her to two and half years imprisonment without an option of fine.
Her step father was found guilty of the offence of receiving stolen property and was jailed one year without an option of fine.
