A former Minister of State for Education, Kenneth Gbagi, has arrested and charged four of his staff working in his hotel, Signatious Hotel, Warri, Delta State, for allegedly stealing his N5,000.
An online news platform, SaharaReporters reports that Gbagi, who is currently nursing a governorship ambition in Delta State in 2023 on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, last week Friday arrested the staff after they were stripped naked and photographed inside the hotel before handing them over to the police.
SaharaReporters reports that after dehumanizing the four staff, a male and three females, they were taken to the Ebrumede Police Station to be remanded in custody.
The platform reports a member of staff of the hotel who spoke in confidence as saying that his colleagues were arrested by the former minister over the alleged theft of the said amount.
He said, “My boss, former Minister of State for Education and owner of Signatious Hotel, Chief Kenneth Gbagi, arrested four of my colleagues working for him over the stealing of N5,000 from the hotel when actually the N5,000 was given as a gift to them by a guest because of their good behaviour.”
While giving the names of the arrested colleagues as Gloria Oguzie, Victor Ephraim, Rosslyn Okiemute and Achibong Precious, the source said, “Before they were arrested by the police on Friday last week at the hotel, the four staff were stripped naked while they were photographed in the presence of the police.
“We learnt that the dehumanising treatment was instructed by our boss.”
It was further gathered that the hotel management forcefully made some withdrawals from the bank accounts of the four staff through their ATM cards before the police took them away in a waiting van.
The four staff were charged before a magistrate court sitting in Effurun after four days of detention.
In a five-count charge, the police accused the suspects of conniving among themselves to steal monies ranging from N156,000, N110,000, N5,000 and N2,000 owned by Signatious Hotel and committed an offence punishable under section 516 and 390 (9), of the criminal code Law Cap21C Vol.1 Law of Delta State.
The four staff, it was learnt, were granted bail on Monday through the intervention of some anti-corruption and human rights activists, who decided to take up the matter.
A Warri-based human rights lawyer, Omemiroro Maxwell Ogedegbe, who confirmed the story, said that the four staff were granted bail by a magistrate court sitting in Effurun, Delta State.
