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The Lagos State Rapid Response Squad (RRS), a unit of the Lagos State Police Command, has arrested a suspect who specialised in planting maid in homes to rob their employers of valuables.
The man who was identified as Francis Okputu (37), a former dry cleaner operator said to have abandoned his dry cleaning job and took to sourcing house helps for wealthy families.
In his confessional statement, Okputu used to go to rural areas to get the girls, who he later distributes to different homes as house helps. Police said the suspect used to plant the girls as maids in wealthy homes, ostensibly to use them to steal from their employers.
The suspect’s charade was blown open after he tried to make one of his girls, Joy Onoz, to steal foreign currencies and gold jewellery from her mistress.
Rather than comply, Onoz ran to her mistress and exposed the agent schemes. The maid, Onoz confessed to policemen about her agent’s move to loot her employer, quickly told her madam of Francis’ plans and they played along with his arrangement.
The mistress gave Joy some hard currencies and jewellery and her picture and told her to contact Francis. Francis, unknowingly, instructed Joy to meet him at Iyana-Ipaja to handover her loots to him and that he would arrange how to get the imitations to her.
Officers, who had been contacted by the employer, swung into action and laid ambush for Francis at the agreed location where he was arrested after receiving the loots.
After his arrest, the RRS team visited some housemaid that Francis had installed in different parts of the state to question them and also advised them to steer clear of any plan that is contrary to law.
The Police also visited the said prophetess, who was to help Francis hypnotise Joy’s mistress. She disclosed that the last time she saw him was in February 2018, when he came for prayer and asked her to help hypnotise a woman who employed one of his clients, but that she refused his demand and sent him out of her church because she does not indulge in such practice as a servant of God.
Recovered from Francis at Iyana-Ipaja, the point of exchange of the stolen items, were $15 dollars, sets of gold jewellery worth N450,000 and a picture.
This post was written by Debo Omilani.
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