In a world of sophistication with varied security investments by individuals and businesses for utmost safe protection from the unknown attacker from outside, we are still reeling under insecurity.
Be it nighttime or daytime, the fear of the known employee who lives within or without is raising suspicions and questions as to who to trust within one’s confines.
A recent unfortunate incident involving a house help who brutally killed his employers is raising concerns as to who to allow into one’s home.
Should trust be a deciding barrier no matter the outward appearance and demeanour of the individual being considered?
It is alarmingly proving to be so.
Unfortunately, trust is now a hard currency, posing the fear of who to allow in as a household employee, be it a house-help, a private security, a driver or a gardener.
There is also the fear of who is chasing you in cyberspace, exploiting ways to dupe or rob without necessarily putting a gun to a victim’s head. I am referring to the numerous ways of internet fraud.
So when it is said that we live in a fearful world, it is well and truly so.
There does not seem to be any foolproof safety in the home or out there on the internet where one’s personal details are public information.
The risks are many.
The sad story of an elderly couple who were murdered by someone they must have trusted at a point and had virtually left their home open to him hits very hard to the core.
With stories like this, who can one trust these days?
Story
According to a Myjoyonline story published on September 13, 2026, a 32-year-old security guard employed by the couple as an errand boy has been arraigned before the Adabraka District Court and remanded in custody over the murder of the couple in their home at Asylum Down, a suburb of Accra, following a dispute over GH¢1,500 the man claimed the couple owed him.
Having done the unthinkable, the man allegedly concealed their bodies in a septic tank in the house, took over their phones, their car, some personal belongings and cash.
After some months, he was traced to Dubai, arrested and deported to Ghana to face trial.
Terrifying as the case is, questions also arise not only about trust but also about the level of exposure, closeness and confidentiality that existed between the couple and the employee.
Did the couple open up too much to him and made him think he was a dependable employee?
Increasingly, a lot of couples and individuals are living on their own and therefore relying on the services of paid helpers or strangers to assist them.
The days are gone when the extended family system operated seemingly under one roof with ready help from within when one needed it.
But bringing strangers into our homes based on mere recommendation is a bigger part of the problem.
We are taking people in looking just at their “face value” with very little search on their backgrounds.
Very few questions are asked because one needs the help desperately and fears that what may seem like “inquisitiveness” might drive a potential helper away.
We accept them as they are and are ready to open up to them despite the cooked-up stories they sometimes come up with, knowing they would be given sympathetic ears and some empathy.
As they gain ready access, they take mental notes of how far they can get.
They have free entry to all rooms in the house; they have their own gate keys and are invariably the ones to lock up at night.
We travel for days and months and leave them in charge.
They know all the details about the security camera, if there is one.
We only think of the intruder from outside and not the stranger we have put in charge and working from inside.
Yet, some gruesome attacks inside people’s homes are invariably linked to an insider’s connivance.
Media
A few years ago in the media, a young lady in Kumasi employed a male house help recruited through an agency, thinking she was safe.
In less than two weeks, this new employee, who had moved in, attacked her one day and repeatedly stabbed her.
He concealed her body in a water tank in the house and bolted with her vehicles, money and other property.
Also fresh in one’s mind is the murder of a law lecturer from the University of Ghana who was murdered in his home with his hands and legs tied together. Police investigation linked the murder to a cleaner in the house.
As gruesome murders and other attacks inside people’s homes invariably are linked to insiders and this also applies to cases of armed robbery attacks often linked to shared information by insiders, it is time for homeowners who go out seeking live-in helpers to engage more deeply and find out more about the people they accept to work for them.
Trust is becoming a very hard currency when it comes to employing someone to work in one’s home.
It goes beyond recommendation. It is very much a lot of probing, a period of probation and firmness.
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