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8 year old maid jailed for stealing her employer’s N1.5m in Ogun.

An Igbosere Magistrate’s Court sitting in Lagos State on Monday sentenced one Gabriel Happiness, a housemaid to 2-and-half years imprisonment without an option of fine.18 year old Happiness allegedly stole her employer’s N1.5m in less than 3 hours of being employed.

A police prosecutor, Sergeant Cyriacus Osuji, said Happiness was arrested alongside her accomplices; her step father, Gabriel Igbang, 30, and her mum, Gabriel Joy.

The maid was said to have stolen the cash from her employer, Mrs. Bolanle Ibukunoluwa’s residence in Lagos, then proceeded to a bush in Ogun to bury her loot, before escaping to Benin, the Edo State capital.

The prosecutor said Happiness was employed by Mrs. Ibukunoluwa sometime in May 2016, through one Alhaja popularly known as Iya Dolapo, as a housemaid and the monthly salary agreed upon was N7, 000, meant to be paid in bulk at the end of the year.

OSUJI SAID, “ON JUNE 26, 2016, AT ABOUT 5:30 PM, THE MAID (HAPPINESS) MOVED INTO HER EMPLOYER’S HOUSE.
“ON THAT FATEFUL DAY, THE WOMAN (MRS. IBUKUNOLUWA) WENT OUT AND CAME BACK AT ABOUT 8:00PM ONLY TO DISCOVER THAT HER NEW HOUSE-HELP WAS 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.
“MRS. IBUKUNOLUWA HOWEVER REPORTED THE INCIDENT AT CENTRAL POLICE STATION AND THE MAID WAS LATER APPREHENDED IN BENIN, WHERE SHE RAN TO, AFTER GIVING HER STEP-FATHER THE MONEY.”

The prosecutor further noted that her stepfather, Igbang and her mother, Joy, denied receiving any money from her but after interrogation, they confessed to the crime.
Happiness, thereafter, took the police to the bush in Ogun where the sum of N300, 000 was recovered and another N252, 500 was also recovered at another location in the bush.
The presiding magistrate, Mrs. A.T. Omoyele, in her ruling, found the first defendant guilty of conspiracy and stealing.
Omoleye sentenced Happiness to 2-and-half years imprisonment without an option of fine.
Igbang, on his part, bagged one year jail term without an option of fine, after being found guilty of receiving stolen property.

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