A 30-year-old woman, Faith Ezekiel, has demanded justice after Nigerian billionaire and Chief Executive Officer of Pacific Holdings Limited, Adedeji Adeleke allegedly ordered her to be locked up in an abandoned building with no electricity, water or functioning toilet in Ede, Osun State.
Adeleke is the father of popular Nigerian singer, David Adeleke, aka Davido.
According to Faith, an ex-worker of Omotosho Electric Energy Company Limited, Ore, Ondo State, a company owned by Adeleke, her ordeal started after she refused to acknowledge a sack letter given to her in 2020.
She accused the Managing Director of the company, Tokunbo Omidina and HR Manager, Bamiji Olapade of victimisation, assault and illegal termination of her employment.
“I started working in that company in 2014, and in November 2020 while the company was still on lockdown due to Covid-19, the current Managing Director, Tokunbo Omidina and the HR Manager, Bamiji Olapade of the company issued me a sack letter for no reason, and this was after Mr Tokunbo Omidina was made the Acting Managing Director in September 2020.
“I refused to acknowledge the sack letter when they told me to acknowledge it because I should have been issued queries and warnings before the sack letter if I had committed an offence,” she told SaharaReporters.
Narrating her ordeal, Faith continued, “They gave police officers in the company an order to drag me out of the company, but my other colleagues came to my rescue. They asked the Acting Managing Director and HR Manager what my offence was, and they responded by saying that Dr. Adedeji Adeleke told them to sack me and that I must leave immediately.
“My colleagues pleaded on my behalf but they refused. After about an hour, the Acting Managing Director sent two of my colleagues to tell me that Dr. Adedeji Adeleke said he was no longer interested in sacking me, and that I should join Group B which was working from home. He said that I should resume work after 3 months, but that I may not be at home for the 3 months.
“I recorded their conversation with me; so, I asked the Acting Managing Director and the HR Manager to give me a written letter to that effect, but they said no, that there was no need for that. They said I should leave my belongings in my apartment at the staff quarters. So I carried only my handbag containing a few of my clothes and left for Lagos where I lived with an aunt, leaving behind all my credentials (original and photocopies of my degree certificate, NYSC discharge certificate), laptop, fridge, kitchen utensils, books, clothes and others.
“Because my aunt travelled with the house key before the lockdown, I was stranded. The next day, I received 3 months salary alert. They were for the month I was issued a sack letter (November), December and then January 2021. So, in January 2021, I travelled to resume work after 3 months but I was not allowed into the company. When I got to the gate, I spoke to the Acting Managing Director on the phone, and he said that Dr. Adedeji Adeleke didn’t want to ever see me in his company again. So, I told him to allow me to carry the belongings I left in my room, he said I could not come into the company to do anything. So, I went back to Lagos devastated.
“I called Dr. Adedeji Adeleke many times, and sent him messages but he didn’t pick up or reply to my messages. I also went to his house in Lagos but I was not allowed to see him. This is somebody who used to pick up my calls and reply to my messages.”
The woman added that in February 2021, the Managing Director of the company called her to write a letter addressed to Adeleke for her to be re-employed.
She said despite writing the letter, she wasn’t reinstated nor allowed access to the company to take her belongings.
“In February 2021, the Acting Managing Director called and told me that Dr. Adedeji Adeleke said I should write an undertaking letter and that he would tell me what to write in the letter. So I asked him why and he responded, saying that I would not get my salary and would not be reinstated if I didn’t write what he wanted. he told me to write that ‘I will no longer have loud arguments with anyone in the plant’ and that ‘I should pledge to be of good conduct and obey all the rules and regulations of my department and the plant at large’.
“He told me to send it to him first for confirmation via email before sending it to Dr. Adedeji Adeleke. He confirmed it (receipt) via email and told me to send it to Dr. Adedeji Adeleke and copy him in the mail. I did all he told me to do but I didn’t get any reply from him and Dr. Adedeji Adeleke,” Faith told SaharaReporters.
“I waited till May 2021, and then put a call across to the Acting Managing Director. He told me that Dr. Adedeji Adeleke said my undertaking letter was not enough and that I should get my guarantor to write a letter backing up my undertaking letter. So I told Professor Michael Onyedikachi Akpa at Babcock University about it, the Professor called the Acting Managing Director and pleaded with him to stop tormenting and frustrating me, that I didn’t commit any crime.
“The Professor advised me to remove my mind from that company, that they can kill me if I go back there. My colleague (Mr Sunday Uzoma) stood as my guarantor and wrote the letter. I re-sent the undertaking letter with Mr Sunday Uzoma’s letter to Dr. Adedeji Adeleke and then copied the Acting Managing Director just as he had instructed me to, I still didn’t get any reply from them.”
Speaking further, the orphan narrated how she was abducted and kept in an abandoned building for seven days in Ede by Omidina and Olapade, who claimed they were acting on Adeleke’s orders.
“In August 2021, the Acting Managing Director called and said that Dr. Adedeji Adeleke told him and the HR Manager, Bamiji Olapade to take me to a place in Ogun state. I asked him for what, and he responded by saying that he didn’t know, but that if I accepted to go, I would be reinstated and also paid all my salaries.
“So the next day, the HR Manager (Bamiji Olapade) sent H25,000 into my bank account, called and told me to start going to Ogun state. I didn’t tell my friend who accommodated me; I carried my handbag like somebody who had been charmed and left for Ogun state. I received a call from the Acting Managing Director when I arrived in Ogun state that evening; he told me that their plan had changed and that I should start going to Osun state.
“So I boarded a bus to Osun state that I hadn’t been to before. He called me again when I got to Osun state and told me to wait at a filling station. Around 9:30 pm, two men came and carried me to a place they said is called Ede; they said they were taking me to Adeleke University. We got to a big gate and a man I don’t know came and took me in his car to the outskirts of the compound, close to the bush. He kept me inside an abandoned building with no functioning toilet, electricity, water; a very dirty place,” she said.
“I cried, screamed and told him to release me, that I have an ulcer, he told me that I would be there till the Acting Managing Director and HR Manager instructed him to release me. I didn’t eat or drink. I was traumatised, depressed, sick and weak. My face, hands, and legs were swollen, so on the sixth day, a woman and her son came by the window, interrogated me, and then told me that they heard those people that kept me there saying that I am mentally deranged, that I am mentally sick, that’s why they came to ask me a few questions.
“So, they helped me with some money the next day which was the seventh day. The man that kept me inside the abandoned building came and told me to leave, that he would write the Acting Managing Director and HR Manager. So that woman helped me with some money, bought me food and water, and took me to the bus stop where I boarded a bus back to Lagos.
The brakes of the bus I boarded failed and I got injured. My glasses broke, and I started begging people for transport fare on the road. I was very sick, and I looked very dirty, but I eventually got to Lagos. My friend took me to a hospital and I was treated, but I still didn’t get well. I was very sick from that August till January 2022. Then my friend got a scholarship and travelled to Canada.
“In March 2022, my case was heard by the staff of the (National) Human Rights Commission. They called the Acting Managing Director and HR Manager, but they lied that they didn’t seize my belongings. In fact, they said they didn’t know me. A man at the human rights office connected me to the Area Commander at Ore, so I left Abuja for Ondo state.
“I reported to the Area Commander at Ore and wrote a statement. The Area Commander served them an invitation letter; the HR Manager came but the Acting Managing Director refused to show up. At the next meeting the Area Commander, Ore had with me and the HR Manager, a lawyer called Ogiren came with a petition he wrote against the Acting Managing Director and HR Manager.
“He wrote the petition without my consent and told me that he had discussed it with the suspects and they said they would pay me salary from 2020 till date, plus that I would resume work as compensation but I rejected the offer. Barrister Ogiren got angry with me because I rejected the offer. Ever since then, he and the suspects have been threatening me, and Area Commander in Ore warned him to stop it.
“The Area Commander in Ore was preparing to charge the suspects to court in March when he received a phone call from the Area Commander in Okitipupa, who told him to transfer the case to his office, saying where the power plant is located falls under his jurisdiction. So the Area Commander in Ore transferred the case and wrote that the suspects should be charged to court immediately.
“When the case was transferred to Okitipupa, the Area Commander in Okitipupa assigned three police officers to follow me down to Omotosho Electric Energy Company Limited to recover my belongings. By the time the police officers and I got to the company, the Acting Managing Director and HR Manager had burgled my room, stolen my bag containing original and photocopies of my degree certificate, NYSC discharge certificate and a laptop, and scattered my remaining belongings inside the company’s open store room.
“They said they don’t know where my credentials and laptop are, and that there’s nothing I can do to them because I am an orphan. They said I don’t have anybody that can follow up on the case with them. After the Area Commander in Okitipupa manipulated the case and heard that I wanted to report to the state Commissioner of Police, he rushed and charged the suspects to court in May 2022.”
When contacted by SaharaReporters, Omidina said he had nothing to say.
“I have nothing to say, the case is already in court,” he said.
Efforts made by our correspondent to reach the billionaire businessman for a reaction or clarification were not successful as he did not answer calls to his mobile phone. He also did not reply to a text message sent to him.
