[size=17pt]I regret stealing my boss’ N20 million - Suspect[/size]

By Adebayo Waheed - updated: Tuesday 12-06-2009


The suspectIF you are one of those people who have strong belief in their workers to the extent that you can entrust them with anything including huge amount of money, you had better be careful and be cautious. The reason is that you may be betrayed anytime and your worker may disappear or run away with your money or valuables.

There have been several reports of cashiers duping their employers and making away or escaping with money put in their trust.

Femi Ajao is a good example of such. He was a cashier with a bureau de change in Ibadan, Oyo State, but recently, he decided to abscond with N20 million belonging to the company.

The suspect, who claimed to have attended St Andrews College of Education, Oyo, told Crimes and Ssecurity in an interview at the Oyo State Police command headquarters, Eleyele, that he did not know what really got to his head before he decided to steal the money.

He admitted that he was entrusted with everything at the office, including money. According to him, without the knowledge of his boss, he decided to duplicate all the keys in the office including where money was kept.

For days, he was keeping vigil in the office and at the same time mapping out strategies on how he could get the money out of the safe without his boss detecting.

However, his strategy worked out when in the early morning of the fateful day, he decided to embark on the mission and packed the money before any of the staff could resume.

He used the duplicated keys to gain entrace into the offices, forcefully opened the strong safe and took N20 million. After taking the money, he poured palm oil round the safe so as to create an impression that it was a strange, unseen spirit that carried out the operation.

The palm oil, he said, was also to create fear in the mind of whoever that might visit the scene of the incident and also register the impression that the perpetrator of the act had an axe to grind with the owner of the company and that the battle was spiritual. With this impression, it would be difficult for anybody to smell a rat or suspect any foul play from any member of staff of the company.

The suspect, while speaking with Crime and Security said “I don’t know why I committed the act, I was confused. What I remember was that I stole the money and when the policemen came for investigation, I told them to go and pick the money where I kept it,” he stated.

The suspect was arrested for the theft of both local and foreign currencies, totalling about N20 million at a bureau de change where he was a cashier.

Sequel to a complaint from the operator of the bureau de change that she discovered that her office was burgled on 15 May, 2009 and the sum of £9,442, $2,597, E185 and N2,451,775, amounting to N19,441,888 kept in the safe, was stolen by unknown person(s) and replaced with palm oil poured on the floor.

Oyo State Police Commissioner, Mr Baba Adisa Bolanta, disclosed that policemen swung into action and commenced investigation which led to the arrest of the cash officer of the company who confessed to have stolen the money and poured palm oil in the safe to make it look mysterious.

The police boss further stated that the suspect had confessed that he had long duplicated the keys to the safe and had been stealing from the safe before this time.
Recovered from him was N19,519,397. http://www.tribune.com.ng/15062009/tue/crime2.html

useless man

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