Domestic Worker's Palava..

There are over one thousand and one reasons why parents employ domestic staffs, especially here in Lagos where busy parents need someone to look after their young ones while they go about their daily businesses. It is also not news that the possibility of finding a 'trusted' one is almost zero. These parents are however, left with no other option than to make do with whoever is available and hope for nothing short of the best.

However, over the years, some parents have tagged these dometic workers as 'necessary evil'..lol, while others feel that employing them is equivalent to dining with the devil. All these description is as a result of how their domestic workers have dealt with them in one way or the other. Some of these parents recount their ordeals..

A medical doctor, Yemi Oladimeji, mother of a five-year-old girl narrated how her house help would sexually abuse her daughter anytime she was away at work. She said, “My daughter was a cheerful and jovial child. But I noticed that some months after I employed a 16-year-old boy as house help, she became reserved. She cried

excessively, especially when urinating. I didn’t know what

was going on until the day I caught my house help

having carnal knowledge of my daughter. I could not

believe my eyes. I left office early that day. “When I got home, my house help was in his room and didn’t know I had returned from work. I quietly walked into his room. Just as I opened the door, I found him on top of my daughter; I almost screamed my lungs out. I broke down in tears, I didn’t even know what to do, I wasn’t angry at the boy but at myself. I felt I had failed as a mother. Beating the boy or sending him packing wouldn’t change the psychological trauma my daughter was going through all those months. I hate to recall that day.”

In February 2013, a video of a nanny maltreating a four-

month-old baby went viral on the Internet. The video showed the nanny lifting and throwing down the baby on the floor repeatedly. The baby, in a state of helplessness, cried for hours but there was no one to help. It is believed that the baby suffered injuries and fractures.

There have also been cases where domestic workers

connived with kidnappers to abduct their bosses’ children. The Odegbaikes’ 10-month-old baby, Enioluwa Odegbaike,

went missing from their home while in the custody of a

nanny they hired two weeks before. The baby was believed to have been abducted by the nanny, identified as Victoria. Luckily for them, security agents secured the release of their baby.

In December 2014, Mrs Onajite secured the service of an  housemaid through a sale portal, OLX, where a visitor, identified simply as Omolade, advertised. Omolade had allegedly posted a number on the website for those who were interested in a “humble” housemaid to apply. She later got a maid and two weeks later, the 24-year-old housemaid was said to have fled home with the kids –Rafael (3), and 15-month-old Michael. The kids were later returned after paying a ransom of 2.5m.

Similarly and more recently, 9th of April 2015 precisely, 3kids were also kidnapped b a nanny gotten from the same sale portal, OLX. The maid resumed work on Monday morning only to disappear with the kids on Wednesday morning around 8am.  the family was contacted by the suspect on Thursday and demanded for 15 whooping million naira as ransome!! 

I don't blame the woman, but how would you leave your children with a total stranger? Someone jokingly said ''kidnapping business is one of the most lucrative business in nigeria''. I totally disagree with her.. Let's here your thought on this...