The suspects, Abu Abubakar and Hadi Isiaka, both indigenes of the same community from Kogi State, were employed through an agent, to work as day and night guards at the home of the GRA-based businessman, who frequently travels out of the country.
Isiaka, 30, had worked at the house for about two years before Abu was employed by their boss who did not know they were kinsmen.
Saturday Punch learnt that Abu, 24, was sent packing from the house less than four months after he started work on suspicion of his criminal nature.
The police said the landlord of the house travelled abroad with his family in December 2016 only to come back and realised that $2,000 he kept in his bedroom was gone.
In addition to that, part of the bundles of N200 and N100 notes kept in the room were also taken.
But the case was not reported as the landlord decided he wanted to be sure of the actual thief before reporting to the police so the innocent ones out of his domestic staff would not suffer.
After trying in vain to determine how the house, which was locked up could have been accessed in his absence, he travelled again few months after with his family with the hope that the burglary was a one-off thing.
But this time, 2,000 Euro belonging to the landlady and the entire bundles of mint Nigerian notes which the family kept for social events were carted away.
Also stolen in the house were Apple Macbook, iPads and other valuables. Later, it was discovered that a hole barely enough for an adult’s head to pass through had been cut through the burglar-proof of one of the rooms in the house.
The police said the entire worth of mobile phones, perfumes and cash stolen on the two occasions amounted to N6m.
However, when Isiaka was questioned about how the house was burgled while he was working, he denied knowledge of it, but instead diverted suspicion to a former guard who was recalled to the house after Abu’s sack.
When asked if Abu could have perpetrated the burglary, Isiaka said he did not think so.
He was later asked to contact Abu since it had been discovered that they were both kinsmen but he insisted that Abu had left for their village to bury his mother.
A police source who is familiar with the investigation, said that when Isiaka finally took them to where Abu lived, they met Abu’s mother but they did not reveal themselves as policemen.
On a second visit, Abu’s mother was said to have disguised as someone else with a hijab and told the police that Abu would not be home from work for some days.
“We realised she must have learnt that we were policemen. When we threatened to arrest her until the actual mother showed up, she removed her Hijab and said she was indeed Abu’s mother that we had met the first time,” the police source said.
A Punch correspondent learnt that the woman promptly took them to Abu’s house where he was arrested.
He later confessed that he indeed carried out the burglary. Isiaka on his part first admitted to getting a share of N50,000 from proceeds of the loot. Again he change his words and said his share was N175,000. Later, he denied he got anything at all.
The suspects were detained at the Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, Yaba, Lagos.
On Thursday, the police said the suspects had been arraigned before a Yaba Magistrate’s Court, Lagos.
They were charged on three counts of conspiracy, burglary and stealing punishable under sections 411, 287 (7) and 307 (2) of the Criminal Laws of Lagos, 2015.
The suspects were admitted to a N200,000 bail each by Magistrate R. N. Johnson, while the case was adjourned till June 21, 2017 for mention.
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