How much do we know of domestic staff, drivers?
- Stakeholder reveals how not to fall victim
A middle class family in good old Lagos back in the ‘70s, could engage househelps, drivers, cooks, even live-in gardeners – through the pages of The Daily Times newspapers. Until the Lagos State Government established an employment agency called “Labour Office” somewhere along Awolowo Road, Ikeja, househelps and cooks came mainly from Akwa Ibom state; not so many from the Eastern states, as well as some Ghanaians (when their land threw them out for a season): but all were later overtaken by Togolese househelps everywhere.
Then entered the “Abokis” (Hausas) as security guards; they were later joined by some Niger Republic citizens who had strayed across the Nigerian border.
It would be recalled that the Labour Office established at the time by Lagos State Government was ostensibly targeted at creating government records for every applicant. All unemployed people of working age seeking any manner of employment – including clerks, secretaries, short-hand typists or stenographers and audio-typists (as they were known) were required to register at no cost and a file bearing important details of their nationality, tribe, state, residence, qualification (if any) and passport photograph, etc was opened for each applicant.
But over time when servants’ eyes became
“open”, not a few unsuspecting families have been devastated and thrown into trauma by domestic staff they had brought into their homes.
Trail of domestic tragedies
One of the most painful domestic crimes on Nigeria police record is that of the murder of a top female commercial flight pilot of the former Nigeria Airways in 1988.
Until the gruesome incident on the 8th of February of that year, Captain Hadiza Lantana Oboh was the Senior First Female Officer (S/FO) of the defunct Nigeria Airways. She was murdered by her domestic staff for things as vain as foreign currency and jewels.
Single and living alone in her 43A, Bourdillion Road home in Ikoyi, the captain’s only companions were her domestic helps, one Abdullahi, Peter Echie and some others. Hadiza enjoyed every available luxury and was hardly visited by friends, relations or associates.
Abdullahi, according police account, worked as the gate-man, security watch and gardener in addition to handling some other household chores and had access to all parts of the house.
Abound 8pm that February, Hadiza Oboh drove from the airport to her home and it was Abdullahi who opened the gate for her as she arrived from work and headed for her bedroom while one of the domestic workers helped her with the flight bag. There he was said to have noticed a lot more foreign currencies than usual in the bedroom along with a lot of designer wears, jewel-studded bracelets, gold chains and many others.
Hadiza was in her kitchen preparing a meal when Abdullahi sneaked behind her and pounced on her with a rope he had and despite Hadiza shouts, pleas and struggles, she was overpowered. As the pilot gave her last kick in a desperate struggle to live, the very person she hired to protect her, Abdullahi, increased the grip and tightened the noose around her neck and strangled her to death.
The assailants did not stop there. They took her corpse to the septic tank (‘soak away’), where they dumped it and cemented the tank cover back.
The confident killers then embarked on a proper looting of her house, carting away every valuable, from gold jewels to her expensive wears and hard currencies. Her car was turned it into a taxi and even Peter abandoned the boys’ quarters and started living in the main building. Whenever a visitor or friend came to check on Hadiza, Peter and the rest would say, “Madam don travel and we no know when she go return.”
It took a suspicious police officer on duty that night next compound who noticed unusual movements in and out the premises of the late captain to invite security agents and Peter and others were arrested and bundled to the Ikoyi Police Station.
It took many months of heat for the police to locate the badly decomposed body of the flight captain and sadly, on June 1, 1998, the four suspects were arraigned at the Chief Magistrate’s Court in Lagos, for conspiracy, armed robbery and murder.
Quite recently in Lagos, one Miss Mabel Okafor Mang, a 60-year-old bureau de change operator was murdered in her posh house at Banana Island on August 19th, 2016 by a security man she had employed only 10 days back.
Operatives of the Lagos State Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Ikeja, traced the suspect and arrested him at his country home in Taraba State. He confessed to the crime and was subsequently charged to court and has since been remanded in Kirikiri maximum prison.
Besides housemaids “occupying” the master’s bed in madam’s absence and getting pregnant in the process, househelps have been in the news for all criminal reasons, ranging from kidnapping children of their employers to aiding robbers to invade their homes.
A well versed recruiter who preferred to be anonymous, told The Daily Times that, hiring a domestic staff in Nigeria now requires a great deal of rigour and pro-activity, whether the staff be a housemaid, driver or any other staff working and living in your house.
The recruiter said she quit being the “nice American” and became more realistic in her hiring of house helps and drivers. Below are ten points she advanced to be considered if you must employ a live-in domestic staff:
1) Take keen interest in the prospective staff and pay attention to every detail. Rather than do a formal interview, entertain a free conversation; make him or her feel at home. This gives the prospective staff the leeway to reveal even some important information he or she would have otherwise, withheld.
2) Set up a file for every staff.
3) Make sure every staff has a bank account. This enables the employer to trace the staff if necessary, as the creation of account requires them to submit true copies of their identity cards in addition to a BVN number.
4) Pay every money into their account and keep track of payment. This would prevent them from denying that they received money as they often do.
5) Try to know any close relative to the staff. Probe into the bank details of the staff’s relatives. Family ties are strong in Africa and this would enable a tracking of the staff if need arises.
6) Make sure monies paid is signed for and help the staff to get a National Identity card from the National Identity Management Commission.
7) Take pictures of the help whenever possible, during events at home or office. This would be useful he or she bolts away and the employer is required to provide images of the staff.
8) About a week after they have resumed work, register the domestic staff at Force HQ or at any Divisional Officer’s Office nearest to your residence. This would certainly put the fear of the Lord in them.
9) Request and keep pictures of the staff’s family members.
With the growing rate of kidnapping and armed robbery in Nigeria today, it is imperative that we take our personal safety and security into our hands by being vigilant towards the people we work closely with and those who work are live-in workers. These staff work closely with us, know our weak points and can be tempted to use it against us.
So be wise. Be warned. Don’t fall a victim.
