Housemaid colludes with friends to rob employer

Mary Francis and Igwe

The Lagos State Police Command has arrested a housemaid, Mary Francis, for allegedly conniving with her friends to rob her employer.

The spokesperson for the command, Ngozi Braide, said on the day of the robbery, Francis intentionally left the door open in order to give the robbers easy access to the house.

She said, “Francis, Ogana Igwe, John and Peter all planned to carry out a robbery operation in the house of her employer. On January 4, 2013, at about 7:30pm, the entrance gate was intentionally left open which gave easy entrance to the robbers.

“The two armed men ransacked madam’s apartment having tied her up with ropes. The robbers carted away a Honda Civic car, a laptop, N200,000 and $3,000 (N480,000), gold and jewellery valued at N2m, five mobile phones.

“Through investigations, we traced Igwe, the prime suspect, to Cross River State but he was later found in Ogun State where some of the stolen items such as the mobile phones and jewellery were sold.”

The housemaid however denied conniving with the robbers but said her employer did not feed her often enough which made her prone to temptation.

She said, “I didn’t know that the door was left open that day. Igwe had told me earlier that he planned to rob my boss but I refused. Even on the day they came to rob, I was begging him not to but he said if I exposed him, he would kill me. I was also tied up along with my madam which shows you that I knew nothing about the robbery.

“I have been working with her for over two months but most of the times it was only garri that she fed me with.”

Igwe however insisted that the housemaid was the brains behind the operation. He said he only used toy guns during the robbery and pleaded with the police to show him mercy as he was ready to receive God into his life.

He said, “Mary (Francis) and I are both from Cross River and I knew her before coming to Lagos. One day we met at Sagamu and she told me she wanted to steal her boss’s money and run away but I told her I had a brighter idea.

“With the cooperation of Mary, we stormed her madam’s house with toy guns around 8pm and robbed her. We stole a car in order to escape but we later dumped it somewhere. We sold the jewellery for N400,000 and my share was N200,000. We didn’t give Mary anything because we haven’t seen her since then.

“I regret what I did and I wish I could be given a second chance because I have changed my ways and I’m ready to receive God into my life.”