Nollywood Thief Yetunde Akilapa Tells Her Own Side Of The Story

Yetunde Akilapa, the Nollywood actress who was arrested and beaten to a pulp for stealing has narrated her side of the story to Encomium magazine. If you dont know Yetunde, read about her arrest last year for possessing 100 master keys HERE, the theft incident on January 12 2014 HERE and an update on her HERE.

She said:

I am not a thief. I didn’t steal anything. I don’t know what is happening to me. I have every reason to believe my problem is spiritual. I can’t even explain the circumstance I found myself. People should not ruin my life and career. I am fed up with life. I am not what people think I am. I have never been to Kirikiri Maximum Prison as alleged. God please help me out of this mess! As I am speaking with you now, I am in Ibadan, Oyo state seeking the face of God and I believe I would get out of this dilemma one day. I am not a kleptomaniac. I have not stolen anything.” 

How did the incidence of January 12 2014 happen. It was reported that you were caught in the dining room of a house in Magodo, and the owner of the house met you there with suspicion that you are there for the wrong reasons. Can you shed more light on the story?
That day I wanted to take my clothes to dry-cleaners. Meanwhile my younger sister had told me earlier that she was not feeling fine. I now planned to go her place after dropping my clothes. I told my friend whom I was putting up with in Ketu that I wanted to go to Bariga to see my sister. That day I also wanted to go to church but I didnt know what happened to me. I just decided to forget about church. As I wanted to board a bus to Bariga, something told me to cross to the other side of the road and take keke NAPEP going to Magodo. That was how I boarded the keke going to Magodo with my bag, clothes and four keys on me. On getting to Magodo, I saw a house and went there straight. I didn’t see any gateman there. I opened the door because it wasnt locked. I entered the house and slept off in the dining room. That’s all I knew till one man just woke me up.

He started interrogating me, asking me a lot of questions which I could not answer. He didn’t accuse me of coming to rob or steal anything but he only wanted to know who i was looking for. But I didn’t know what to say because everything was like a mystery to me. He said i should go first. As I wanted to step out, he instructed the security men there not to allow me move an inch. They were all shouting Thief! Thief!!.

Immediately he picked his phone and called his brother, telling him he met a  strange woman in the house when he came back from church and when he was leaving the house, he locked the door. So he was suprised when he found me in their dining room. How did she enter?

He started saying a lot of things, I was trying to explain to them that I didnt use any key to open the door, I just entered and sat on the dining table and that was how i slept off. I told them i was also confused, I couldnt explain how I got to their place. That was the time i began to realize i was at the wrong place. Then when the owner of the house came, he also started interrogating me, he said i should confess the person that sent me.

He asked weather I was sent to kill him. He thought I came with fetish things, and I said no. He said I should just confess. He even said maybe I was sent to kill his wife. He never accused me of stealing. As he was saying all of this, I was pleading, telling them i wanted to give my clothes to the dry-cleaners. They asked of the person’s name and I told them Bisi. And they checked my phone and found her number.

When they called her to find out, she told them she didnt say Magodo but Maryland. That was how they said I was not saying the truth, that i didn’t want to expose the person that sent me. Before I knew it, one guy just hit me in the head with a club. That’s all I knew.

By the time I regained consciousness, they had invited my friend. When she came, she was shocked to see me in that state. She was screaming. Those people now concluded that they would take me to the police station but before then, they took me to a private hospital to get me treated. When we got to the police station,they started drilling me and I explained the way I explained to them at the house.

They asked the owner of the house if I stole anything, he said no but the way they found me in the house was suspicious. He said maybe I was sent by somebody on a diabolical mission. Their pastor also came and I explained the whole thing to him also, he prayed for me. He said my problem is spiritual. He said God wanted to deliver me that’s why I came to that house that day. But now, my problem is over. That’s how I was asked to go.