Domestic aides should be properly screened by employers
The death of the daughter of a high-profile federal Judge in Lagos has once again brought to fore the security challenge posed by domestic servants in the country and the need for proper vetting by employers. The victim was alleged to have been killed by three domestic aides after which her body was dumped in a manner suggesting that she died outside her residence. "We have succeeded in arresting three of their domestic staff and they have made confessional statements implicating themselves in the murder," said the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Adegoke Fayoade who confirmed the tragedy. "I will advise Lagosians to always profile their domestic staff before employing them."
Unfortunately, this is a familiar tragedy. From a former Vice-Chancellor of Federal University of Technology, Akure to the Chairman of Credit Switch Technology to Lebanese businessman to a naval officer and his girlfriend, the list of murder by domestic servants in Nigeria is long. And with the upsurge in the cases of how cooks, maids, drivers, guards and other personal staff who work in the house, directly attack or collude with criminals to kidnap or kill their employers, there are general concerns about persons Nigerians bring home to work for them. Security experts have warned that in employing those to perform household chores, proper background checks should be conducted not only on them but also on those who provide them with references.
From Lagos to Benin, and from Enugu to Birnin-Kebbi, stories of domestic workers harming their employers or members of their household is becoming common. But in all the cases, there is an element of carelessness. It would seem that in hiring domestic workers, employers place little emphasis on running background checks on them. And in several instances, this has proven to be costly. Indeed, had those who have fallen prey to criminals disguised as domestic workers been more careful in recruiting them, they probably would have spared their families the agony of their untimely death. In one particular case, three security guards attacked their Indian boss before carting away most of his
possessions. In another, an apprentice petroleum tanker driver killed his master and diverted a truckload of aviation fuel destined for Port Harcourt to Taraba State.
What has come out of most of the investigations is that many people employ those they hardly know or whose character they cannot vouch for to work in their houses. This is a dangerous risk to take. "There are many cases of people who employ home help simply because someone referred the home helps to them. They do not carry out any background checks to know where the domestic worker hails from, their family, home address, temperament, etc. This is a huge mistake", said a security expert, Mr Kunle Oladipupo who added, "you cannot just employ someone for a job in the corporate world without knowing them to some extent. However, the opposite is sometimes the case when some people are employing home helps."
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We hope people will listen to that admonition. Conventional wisdom teaches that people should not just take in strangers into their homes. There are too many criminals on the prowl hence the need to take precautions. A retired Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Isaac Eke, once highlighted the danger inherent in employing those whose backgrounds cannot be easily verified as domestic servants. "I want to appeal to people to always carry out background checks before employing domestic workers," he said. It is an admonition that should be heeded by those who want to live in peace with their families. It is one that could also make a difference between life and death.
