World enews: How Discredited Ex-Minister, Fani-Kayode Assaulted Us, Treated Us Like Prisoners

Some domestic workers previously working for a former aviation minister, Femi Fani-Kayode have narrated the horrendous experiences they had while at his house.

They all claimed the former minister had beaten them and stripped several workers naked.

The domestic workers stated that the minister had on several occasions sexually assaulted the young women working in the house.

Emmanuel Okoh, who worked for Fani-Kayode as a chef, said: “Staying at Fani-Kayode’s house was horrific. He hits the people’s heads on kerbs. I worked for five years at his house, for the first weeks, he commended me that the food was good but at a time everything changed.

”There was a time he called the kitchen intercom and requested that everyone should converge on the red carpet. We waited for like 30 minutes but there was a guy there, he’s one of the dog nannies, he leaned on the wall while we waited for Fani-Kayode. I think he’s been watching the guy through the CCTV. As he came he just punched the guy in the eye and started beating him up. I had only stayed there for two weeks so I was frightened.

“I managed myself till the end of the month and when they paid salaries, I was paid N80, 000 as against the N150, 000 that was initially agreed but you can’t actually complain.

“It was not easy for me because sometimes when we finish cooking for him, he will kick the whole table. The food will splash, everyone will be running helter-skelter, the mopols (mobile police) will come downstairs and cock their guns.

“Sometimes he’ll call the kitchen intercom and I’ll keep saying ‘hello sir,’ he will keep quiet for a while, suddenly he’ll say ‘I’ll kill you’. For me, the threat was nothing again, I had already spent like 3 months there so I was no longer scared.

“There’s usually a weapon in the kitchen, he keeps it there and he’d come and pick it.”

A former artisan, Azubuike also said Fani-Kayode’s house is like a prison where even artisans who just come for jobs are not allowed to leave when they want except on the orders of the former minister.

He said, “They call me for maintenance of furniture. He told me he likes my job and he will want me to work for him, particularly in his room but each time I work for him, I don’t go home happy, I go to my family, sad.

“It’s either he keeps me hostage in his house, he doesn’t pay me or he insults me. The incident I would never forget: on December 26, 2019, he called me to come to his house and I went there and he said one of the girls I brought there stole from him. The girl said she didn’t, I went back to my house, they called me again and he ordered policemen to arrest me. He doesn’t allow one to explain oneself.

“Also, on Sallah Day, he ordered my arrest again and I was locked up in the cell. You can’t just enter Femi Fani-Kayode’s house and you leave like that, he might decide you are not leaving till in the next four days. I have brought house helps for him. Sometimes, some of them tell me FFK harasses them. Some of them say they don’t sleep at midnight because he’ll say he wants to eat and they must stand up to give him food.”

Emmanuel Anakan, a former dog handler who started working in the house in 2015 said: “He has many breeds of dogs in different cages. When I got to the house, I thought I’d be okay there because I left Calabar (in Cross River State) to come there but when I got there, I was not happy because he beats his staff, even artisans who come there to work.

“I had access to every part of the house because when something spoils, I take the artisans to show them the spots.

”His dogs aren’t even friendly to him because I trained them. When he wants to give them Suya, he’ll stay afar off and throw the food to them.

“He has beaten me before, till date, I don’t know what I did. On several occasions, he didn’t pay me salaries. Once it’s the end of the month, Fani-Kayode will say I’ve done something wrong and decide not to pay, not only me, other staff members too.

“When people newly come, I take them to the hospital for tests like HIV, hepatitis, and other general body tests.

”The ladies sometimes tell me he touches them, fingers them so when they get to the hospital, I will advise them to leave from the hospital. He has stripped about 10 girls naked. He does that at any time, I don’t know if it is juju or a spirit.

“He beats his wife too, there was a time he beat her and said she was mentally deranged, that they should take her to a psychiatric hospital. Even when she was pregnant, he beat her.”

Sharing his experience, Daniel Gana, who worked as a driver, said the former minister usually beat him which made him resign after one year, though he was called back.

He said: “There was a time he sent us to the owner of AIT to give him a flash drive and he told us not to give it to another person. And since the man was not around, we waited then when the man came, we gave him the flash drive. Before we returned home, others were already calling that Oga was waiting. By the time I got home, he entered the car and said I should move, I asked him where we were going to, he didn’t say anything.

“He asked me to drive back home. When we got home, before I could park the car, he gripped my neck making it difficult for me to breathe, I couldn’t take it anymore, so I had to push him away. I was stripped naked, they beat me, threw me into the gutter. Several times, he beat me and I would be covered in blood. There was a time I fainted and his military men rushed me to the clinic. His bodyguards, Bako, Moses, and the rest, beat people to stupor. There was a police officer he uses too, Daniel Aruga; that one is from Southern Kaduna.

“He beats everyone. There was a time a NEPA official (electricity worker) came to check his light, Fani-Kayode carried the NEPA manager, beat him, and asked the man to kneel down. Fani-Kayode was not paying NEPA bill at that time. He was using light directly but he still punished the NEPA manager.

“He once took a knife and used it to threaten one of his chefs, an Urhobo boy, he said he would kill him.”