Foreign cooks poison family

Two cooks who are Benin Republic nationals, Victor Hounkpe and David Amusu, are telling the Lagos State Police how they conspired to poison their employers' meals with the intention of carting away their belongings from the Lekki residence.

The victims, Chinaka Nwogu and his wife, Omowunmi, had to be rushed to an hospital outside the country for emergency treatment after eating the poisoned food prepared for them by their chefs.

Apart from the couple, other members of the household who ate of the meal, including the security guards, maids and other domestic workers, became unconscious and were hospitalised.

According to information, the incident happened in the evening of Wednesday, April 22, after Hounkpe, prepared a pot of vegetable soup for the family.

As was the custom in the household, everyone was served the food for dinner but minutes after, the head of the household, Nwogu, complained of stomach upset and when his wife wanted to take him to a hospital, she too collapsed at the gate, complaining of severe stomach ache as well.

The couple were rescued by neighbours and taken to an hospital, only to be joined by their two security guards and other domestic staff in the same hospital.

Meanwhile, the Beninoise cooks had fled the compound with the intension of coming back at night to cart away the family's property.

They runaway cooks were later apprehended by operatives of the Department of Criminal Investigation (DCI), Panti, Yaba, where they confessed to the police their complicity in the crime.

Hounkpe, 34, allegedly confessed to the police that he and his compatriot decided to poison the family and when everyone fell asleep, they would easily cart away their valuables.

“I am from the Benin Republic. I came to Nigeria in 2007. I have always worked as a cook in Lagos.

David was the agent who brought me to the couples’ house. He was the one who gave me the substance to put inside the soup. He told me the substance was a sleeping pill. The plan was that everyone would fall asleep.

They wanted to steal gold and other valuables. I put the substance inside the vegetable soup. It was a powdery substance. I had worked with them for about a month.

The couple did not offend us. They were to pay me N50,000 monthly. We just wanted them to sleep off. I ran to the Ogudu area after the incident to pick up another job. That was where I was arrested.”

33-year-old Amusu, on his part, said they operate as a gang and had successfully carried out the operations in some homes before nemesis caught up with them.

“I was a former cook in the house. I was the one who brought Victor (Hounkpe). On the fateful day, when Victor finished cooking the soup, he called me to say the job had been done.

But then, we learnt that the couple was rushed to a hospital after falling unconscious. So, we fled the area.”

Foreign cooks poison family

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