A former Nigerian Minister of State for Education, Kenneth Gbagi, has been accused of stripping his hotels staff naked over alleged N5,000 theft.
The politician reportedly arrested the four workers named, Gloria Oguzie, Victor Ephraim, Rosslyn Okiemute and Achibong Precious, who worked in his Signatious Hotel, Warri, Delta State, after subjecting them to dehumanizing treatment.
Expressive Info learnt that Gbagi, who is reportedly nursing a 2023 governorship ambition in Delta State on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party, last week Friday arrested the workers after they were striped naked, photographed inside the hotel before being taken away by the police to Ebrumede Police Station where they were locked up.
Speaking with newsmen, a member of staff of the hotel revealed that his colleagues were arrested by the former minister over the alleged theft of the of 5,000 naira.
He said, “My boss, former Minister of State for Education and owner of Signatious Hotel, Chief Kenneth Gbagi, arrested four of my colleagues working for him over the stealing of N5,000 from the hotel when actually the N5,000 was given as a gift to them by a guest because of their good behaviour.”
“Before they were arrested by the police on Friday last week at the hotel, the four staff were stripped naked while they were photographed in the presence of the police.
“We learnt that the dehumanising treatment was instructed by our boss.”
It was further gathered that the hotel management forcefully made some withdrawals from the bank accounts of the four staff through their ATM cards before the police took them away in a waiting van.
The four staff were charged before a magistrate court sitting in Effurun after four days of detention.
In a five-count charge, the police accused the suspects of conniving among themselves to steal monies ranging from N156,000, N110,000, N5,000 and N2,000 owned by Signatious Hotel and committed an offence punishable under section 516 and 390 (9), of the criminal code Law Cap21C Vol.1 Law of Delta State.
The four staff, it was learnt, were granted bail on Monday through the intervention of some anti-corruption and human rights activists, who decided to take up the matter.
Warri-based human rights lawyer, Omemiroro Maxwell Ogedegbe, who confirmed the story, said that the staff worker were granted bail by a magistrate court sitting in Effurun, Delta State.
