For about two decades, CEO of Superior Mobile Investment Limited and iClick Gadgets, Dr. Helen Eto has been doing business peacefully at Ikota shopping complex, which borders Victoria Garden City, Lekki Peninsula, Lagos. The shopping facility is run by HFP Engineering Limited.
However, robbers struck at the complex that has about 1,850 shops in the early hours of 7th March. Guards of Finesse Security Limited claimed that they forgot to lock the gate of the facility, allowing the hoodlums to cart away about N30 million phones and other goods from Mrs Eto’s freshly restocked shop.
Lamenting her ordeal to the police in Ajah and Panti, Yaba, Eto said: “We took bank loans for the business plus our life savings all of which are gone. This is a wicked plan against us in our old age with children still in school, other dependants and various bills.
“We plead that the police should help us to get to the bottom of the looting to save us from early deaths as our BPs have shot up sharply because this is our main source of livelihood. A list of the goods looted from the shop was attached to my statements at Ajah Police Station and SIB, Yaba”.
Chairman of Editorial Board of The Daily Times, Omokioja Julius Eto corroborated his wife’s account. Eto, a former Associate Editor of The Guardian and Editor-in-Chief of The Trumpet, said: “The robbery is shocking because the security gate is inaccessible even to shop owners at night. Our shop is just a stone’s throw from the gate and it would have taken about at least two hours to cut through the shop’s security system.
“This makes us to strongly see the guards as the main suspects. We were not immediately notified by the security firm or the facility managers (HFP) of the robbery, which we only got to be aware of at about 8.20 am through one of our employees”.
A former Editor of The Daily Times, Eto, who has also worked as a senior editor at The PUNCH and THISDAY, added: “Since the break-in on 7th March 7till today, Finesse Security Limited has not called to sympathise with us but has been evading our calls and texts to its MD, whom we learnt travelled abroad after the robbery.
“We have been doing everything to support the police investigation despite our predicament and hope they will bring the culprits to justice”.
