Nigeria: Lagos man accuses newly hired driver of disappearing with car

By Zuleihat Owuiye, Mamos Nigeria

A Lagos developer, Olakanmi Ogundele, is seeking help after a driver he had just hired allegedly disappeared with his car only four days into the job.

According to Ogundele, the driver—who introduced himself as Adeleye but was later identified as Olufemi Jogbodo—was assigned to him by his company’s manager after his previous driver fell ill. The new driver began work on October 18 and accompanied Ogundele on a trip to Ijebu Ode that same day. They returned to Lagos on October 20.

Ogundele said Jogbodo also drove him to his office in Ikoyi the next morning. However, while Ogundele was in a meeting, the driver reportedly told the security personnel that he had been sent on an errand. Because the meeting was still in progress, security could not verify the claim, and the driver left with the car—a Gelly Saloon with plate number AGL586GW—and never returned.

The incident was quickly reported to the police tactical team in Ikoyi, who began tracking the suspect. But Ogundele expressed frustration that the search has produced no significant results so far.

A document shared with Ogundele revealed that the suspect is 44 years old, lives on Dele Ogunbowale Street in Ikate, and maintains 11 different bank accounts. Some relatives of the suspect, including his wife’s sister and a cousin, were traced and arrested but later released after exceeding the permissible detention period. Another elderly relative, a 75-year-old woman believed to live in Agbado Ijaiye, could not be arrested due to her age.

Ogundele also disclosed that the company manager who recommended the driver was arrested and questioned. The manager admitted he failed to carry out proper verification of the driver’s details because Ogundele urgently needed someone to take him on the trip. All the information the driver provided turned out to be fake, including the false name “Adeleye.”

Plans are now being made to place a bounty on the suspect to encourage anyone with useful information to come forward and assist in recovering the vehicle.

In a related development earlier this year, police authorities in Lagos disrupted a car-theft network that allegedly planted drivers with fake identities in homes and companies. According to investigators, the syndicate’s drivers typically spent a week or two with employers before disappearing with their vehicles and moving them out of state.