Lagos Lawyer Scaled Fence Into Office and Stole $40,000

The trial of a lawyer, who worked in the Legal Department of the New Cross Petroleum Limited on Victoria Island, Lagos, commenced on Monday, with a witness, Bolaji Oguntade, testifying against him before a Tinubu Magistrate’s Court.

The witness, who is the Chief Executive Officer of the oil company, told the court that recordings from a Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV) camera in the company revealed how the 25-year-old lawyer, Joshua Olomo, scaled a fence to gain entrance into the office of the firm’s Chief Financial Officer around 9pm on December 9, 2015.

The videos showed how Olomo broke a safe in the office and stole some vital documents, and an envelope, containing a sum of $40,000 (about N8m) belonging to the company.

According to Punch, the witness told the presiding magistrate, Mrs. M.B. Folami, that Olomo initially denied entering the office, but later owned up.

He said, “The defendant is a contract staff member in the Legal Department of the New Cross Petroleum Limited. On December 11, 2015, the CFO came to my office, informing me that he had been able to track down an individual that broke into his office. He said the safe in the office was broken and that money had been stolen in his office. He presented CCTV recordings that had been documented two days earlier.

“Six recordings showed an individual, scaling the fence and coming into the office around 9pm. We were able to identify the individual in the video as Mr. Joshua Olomo. We asked him to view the recordings and identify the individual therein.

“He said I inferred that the individual in the video was him, which was not true. He later said he was doing research in the office and was trying to get access to documents for his research. We asked him about the missing money, but he said he knew nothing about it.”

Oguntade further told the court that the defendant confessed to have stolen S20,000 after he put it to him that $200,000 was missing from the office.

“He (Olomo) said he did not take anything like that ($200,000), but he saw an envelope which contained $20,000. In his own words, ‘I took it, I put it down, then I took it.’ I asked him where the money was and he said it was gone. $40,000 is missing,” he added.

The presiding magistrate, Folami, adjourned for February 2 and 3 for continuation of the trial.

The guy was just looking blank when the revelations against him were coming out. Imagine a Lawyer!