It took a newly employed housemaid only six hours after she started work to show her hand: she stole N1.6 million cash in foreign currencies belonging to her boss, according to a report by The Nation on Saturday, August 23, 2019.
But Franca Amaha, who is aged 26- year- old could not enjoy the loot for long as the police arrested her shortly afterwards and is now undergoing interrogation.
Amaha who hails from Cross Rivers State had allegedly approached an employment agent for a domestic job on July 24, 2019 using a fake name , address and guarantor.
She got the job and was subsequently assigned to one Mrs Taiye at Masha area of Surulere ,Lagos ,the following day.
A few hours later that same day , she accompanied her boss to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, to pick her boss’ sister who had returned to the country from abroad.
Moments after they returned to the house, Amaha allegedly sneaked into the guest’s room ,ransacked her luggage and stole $2800, £1000 and 2000 Dutch Guilder.
She hurriedly left the house and switched off her phone so that she could not be reached.
Her boss immediately lodged a report at the nearest police station in Surulere.
She was traced to the residence of one of her friends at Ajah , Lagos where operatives of the Inspector General of Police Intelligence Response Team, IRT, arrested her.
In her confession, the suspect said she stole the money to enable her pay for her mother’s treatment.
Amaha who said she came to Lagos in 2014 had first worked as a maid for another woman who paid her N20,000 per month and enrolled her for a diploma programme at the Isolo campus of the Lagos State Polytechnic in Isolo.
“After staying with her for two and half years, she started complaining that I was returning late from school and that I was no longer performing my home chores. I left when her complaints became unbearable for me,” she said.
“When I left her house, I went into the street and started doing prostitution. When my brothers heard that I was into prostitution, they asked me to come back home.
“I went back to our village. From there, I went to Onitsha, Anambra State, where I spent some time with my brothers. When I came back to Lagos I worked as a house help with a woman in Ikorodu for three months and went back to the village and started farming.
“I came back to Lagos again to look for job in order to raise money. I approached one Mr Frank who is a job agent and he led me to one Mr. Ade who linked me up with the woman in Surulere whom I started working for.
“However, before I started working for the woman she told me about herself and gave me advice on how to work for her and she said that my salary would be paid through my agent.
“But I gave her a fake name and address because I had the intention of stealing her money or anything of value which I could easily sell. So, when I got to the woman’s house around noon, we went to the airport around 3:30 pm to pick her sister and we parked all the woman’s luggage into the house.
“I later opened the bag and took six pieces of $100, five pieces of £20 , five pieces of $20 totalling $700 and £100 pounds. I changed $100 and made my hair with it and bought a new pair of sleepers.
‘’I changed the remaining money and deposited it into my account. I stole her money because I got a call from my village that my mother was sick. Please help me to beg her to forgive me. I will not do it again.”
