A cook, Emmanuel Oko, who once worked with a former Minister of Aviation, Chief Femi Fani-Kayode, says the ex-minister once chased him around the house with a knife because he was not happy with his cooking.
Oko, who worked for the ex-minister for six months, said his salary was N150,000 but Fani-Kayode was fond of deducting his salary.
He stated, “Chief Fani-Kayode is a paranoid soul that gets angry for no reason. There was a time he held a knife and was walking around the table and said ‘I will kill you now’, ‘I will send you to hell now’.
“I would be running around the kitchen while his police orderlies would be watching,” he said.
Oko said on one occasion, Fani-Kayode said he wanted to eat okro but there was none in the house.
The domestic servant said he used his own money to buy the okro and cooked it for him.
“I made okro soup and he was served. He then asked what it was and I said it was okro. He grabbed his fork and said, ‘this is for me?’ He stood up and faced me. I ran outside the kitchen and he chased me. It was the body guards that took me away,” Oko said.
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Some other former domestic staff of Fani-Kayode levelled several allegations against him including sexual harassment and assault.
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About seven of the former domestic servants which include drivers, cooks and nannies, described Fani-Kayode as an erratic and cantankerous man who had the habit of using his bodyguards to assault them and give them corporeal punishment.
The domestic staff, who visited The PUNCH office recently, also deposed to affidavits.
Another domestic servant, Agbolo Edah, who is from Togo, said Fani-Kayode beat him up and tore his clothes because he was not satisfied with his cooking.
The cook said the working conditions at Fani-Kayode’s residence were horrible during the four months he worked there.
Edah in his affidavit stated that domestic servants were usually not allowed to leave the compound and were denied food.
The cook said, “I was assaulted at the slightest provocation while working for Chief Fani-Kayode. He would direct his guards to strip me naked and beat me up.
“One Bako, who is a body guard of Chief Fani-Kayode, is always tasked with strapping my hands and legs together while Chief Fani-Kayode would beat me up.
“I recall being pinned to the ground while Chief Fani-Kayode beat me up and kicked me continuously with his leg. I also witnessed Chief Fani-Kayode strip his staff completely naked on the allegation that they stole from him. He sometimes drags his staff to the police station where they were detained for days.”
A former driver, Jonathan Gaiya, who worked with Fani-Kayode for six months, said the first day he began working with the ex-minister, he witnessed Fani-Kayode asking his police orderly to arrest a barber for overcharging him.
Gaiya said in his affidavit that he was paid N70,000 by Fani-Kayode but was not given any food while staff were not allowed to leave the premises.
He said, “At different times I have been sacked, beaten, abused, assaulted whenever I was caught sneaking out to buy food.
“On one particular day, Chief Fani-Kayode attempted to hit me with his slippers because I slowed down to take a sharp turn (while driving). He accused me of planning to cause him harm and demanded that the police carry out an investigation on me.”
Gaiya alleged that anytime any of Fani-Kayode’s cars developed a fault, the ex-minister would deduct his salary and use the money to pay for repairs.
When contacted on the telephone, Fani-Kayode said he would not respond to the allegations.
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