Security Guard Takes N24m Belonging To His Boss, Threatens to Blow The Whistle

Benedict Emmanuel, a businessman and resident of Gwarimpa Housing Estate, FCT, Abuja, on May 6 noticed that some of the money he kept in a room in his house are missing.
His 40 year-old security guard, who gets N25,000 a month for guarding the residence has confessed to taking the money. Alfred Andrew is a Bauchi State indigene. He moved to Abuja in search of greener pastures.
He said he discovered the money accidentally.
“That day, I was sweeping when I saw a key on the floor. I tried it on the padlock on my boss’ apartment and it opened. I went inside the house and was searching through his belongings when something fell on me from the top of his wardrobe.
“I then realised it was foreign currency. I climbed on a chair to see what was on the top of the wardrobe and noticed that there were currencies from different countries. They were so much. That was the first time I would see so much dollars. I have only seen such large amount in movies.
“I was tempted to take the money. Before, I had been hearing of whistle-blowers but I was not sure who to contact. I didn’t know who to report to. I didn’t have the number of the whistle-blowers (sic). I was scared. I didn’t know who to trust in Nigeria. I might tell someone and the person may turn things around against me.”
Andrew said he started to pick out of the bundles of currencies gradually whenever his boss was out of the house.
“I confirmed from someone the amount in the bundles. He said it was N130m after it was converted. I didn’t touch that one because it was sealed. I was only taking from those bundles,” he said.
According to him, for over a month after he started stealing out of the currencies, his boss did not notice.
He said he noticed that each time his boss travelled out, he came back with more foreign currencies.
At a point, he said he "took some amount and converted it to N24.4m and put it in my account.
When his boss found out that a huge part of his cash was gone, he became suspicious of Andrew when he discovered that the latter was using an iPhone 7 even though his salary was just N25,000.
He invited the police and Andrew was arrested.
“Last Friday when my boss discovered the cash missing, he ordered that nobody should go out of the compound and started searching everybody. His sister who is an official with the Department of State Services came also and checked my phone and bags.
“They took my passport, ATM cards and everything I had before handing me over to SARS. I told my oga I would implicate him by reporting him to EFCC (Economic and Financial Crimes Commission). He said he had been good to me, but I told him his wife had not given me food over the last three years. It is part of the reasons why I did what I did.
“Even when I was employed, I was told my salary would be increased every four months. I was told I would also be fed but that promise was not kept. My boss said the money was not his.”
The police said he would soon be charged to court.