Former Minister of Finance, Dr Kalu Idika was reportedly drugged and robbed by his chef, Peter Odion who is presently cooling his heels at the Lagos State Police Command.
Odion lived with the ex-minister at 180A, Moshood Olugbani Street, Victoria Island, Lagos.
He had allegedly put some sedatives into a cup of coffee he served the ex-minister on a Wednesday morning.
After Idika slept off, Odion was said to have led his gang members into the boss’ apartment, where they made away with a sum of N750,000, a Blackberry, a Samsung phone and other valuables estimated at about N10m.
Odion was paraded on Monday at the police command office in Ikeja along with four others identified as Samuel Ogana, Joy Omagu, Uboh Obi and Sunday Emmanuel.
The state Acting Commissioner of Police, Edgal Imohimi, said operatives of the State Intelligence Bureau, tracked down the suspects.
The CP said the gang members had wanted to adopt a similar method to rob one Mrs. Augustina Akhibi, when they met their Waterloo.
He said, “The syndicate is made up of six members who specialise in getting jobs as cooks or home helps and while in service, gain the trust of their principals and inject their food with drugs to make them sleep off. They thereafter cart away their principals’ belongings.
“The first victim, Dr Kalu Idika, was robbed of items worth N10,943,000 on September 20, 2017, while the second potential victim, Mrs. Akhibi, was used by the police as a bait to bust the syndicate.”
He added that drug substances like Diazepam Injection, ground nitrogen (morgodon) table, and a syringe filled with some substances, were recovered from the gang.”
The chef, Odion, who admitted to the crime, said that he was desperate to get a sum of N60,000 his boss allegedly owed him.
He said, “I started working with the man some months ago. The man owed me N60,000 and he refused to pay. I told my friend, Samuel (Ogana), and he gave me the drug to put in his tea. They came in when he was asleep and robbed him. I played along with them. Other workers in the house did not know I was involved. I got N100,000 from the proceeds.”
Twenty-year-old Omagu said Emmanuel acted as an agent and contracted her as a housemaid to Akhibi.
“He gave me some sedatives to make the woman sleep, but I had not used them when the police arrested me,” she added.
But 38-year-old Emmanuel denied that he gave the drugs to Omagu, noting that he had got a housemaid for the woman in the past.
He said, “I only told her (Omagu) that the woman was wicked and that she could do whatever she liked to her. I don’t know anything about the drugs.”
