Security Guard squeezes neck of salesgirl till she pass out, steals N2.1m goods

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A security guard, Uchenna Okoh, has been arrested for alleged theft of goods worth N2.1m at a shop on
Ikotun-Idimu Road, Lagos State.


The suspect had reportedly visited
the shop – Finest Couture Boutique –on June 20 on the pretext that he
wanted to buy jeans, shirts and
shoes.

While negotiating the prices of the
items with the salesgirl, Juliet
Aghedo, he was said to have lured
her into a corner in the shop and
squeezed her neck until she passed
out.

Okoh, who worked as a security
guard in the Mushin area, reportedly carted away a bag, 56 pairs of jeans, 36 pieces of women leggings, 15 shirts, 13 wristwatches and four mobile phones valued at about N2.1m, before Aghedo regained consciousness.

PUNCH Metro learnt that the shop
owner, Francisca Osomiha, a lawyer,
reported the matter to the Lagos
State Commissioner of Police, Fatai
Owoseni, through a petition.

The petition read in part,

“On June 16, a man walked into Finest Couture Boutique which is under my care. The man (Okoh) pretended he wanted to buy jeans but the price he was asking for did not go down well with us. So he left, leaving his phone number with the salesgirl.

“This same man, on June 18, called her on the phone that he was around the shop to buy the goods. But when we got to the shop, till the end of the day, he didn’t show up. On June 20, just as she (Aghedo) was opening for the day business, the man came to the shop, pretending he had come to buy the
goods.

“He lured her into the inner shop where he knew nobody would hear her screams. He held her neck to the point that she started foaming in the mouth and fainted. He packed away those things, including N280,000 cash not knowing that our Closed Circuit Television was on and had picked all that happened.”

Punch reports that the police
eventually apprehended the Delta
State indigene after tracking him
down with his picture generated
from the CCTV.

“The phone number he used to call the salesgirl was also used to trail him. He had confessed to the crime,” a police source added.

Okoh, in his statement to the police,
said he sold the stolen items to one
Francis at Computer Village, Ikeja,
adding that he took to stealing
sometime in 2010 while in Benin,
Edo State. He said:

“I am a security guard at Mushin. I have been robbing at plazas in Ikotun for some time now. I sold the jeans I stole on that day to Francis at Computer Village for N1,000 a pair. He bought four pairs of canvas for N2,500 each. I was
introduced to stealing when I was in Benin.”

A police prosecutor, Sergeant Donjor Perezi, brought the suspect before an Ikeja Magistrate’s Court on Monday on three counts bordering on robbery.

The presiding magistrate, Mrs. O.
Olanipekun, did not take the plea of
the defendant and ordered that he
should be remanded in prison. Case
was adjourned to November 17,
2016.