By Dr Waka
The Nigerian Community, Italy has seen it all – the good, bad and ugly. One fellow who will never be forgotten in a hurry is one bobo like that his name resembles Mataya (che nome!). This Mataya whose father is a retired palm wine tapper single handedly ruined a thriving Nigerian business which gave employment to several people.

Nack us tory. My people this ekwensu pikins manage to warm his way to his boss’ heart sotaay this business with a sprawling warehouse that specialised in distributing African foods all over Italy was virtually handed over to him by the oga. In no time Mataya that used to look frustrated like who devil beat, come begin dey flex o. This bobo fool his boss for a long time by pretending to be a workaholic who was protecting the interest of the company.

What everyone didn’t know was that he was stealing big time from the company. Since he was more or less in charge of everything, Mataya started siphoning the company’s goods. To the extent that at the height of his thieving he opened a warehouse in his apartment of three bedroom, plus store. Mataya rented two of the room to two different ladies he was charging exorbitant rent and the store to one hustling guy like that who specialises in “centro” matters. Ewooo, what a greedy thief!

As his thieving of the company increase with the passing of each day na so Mataya house dey full. At one point he was overwhelmed he had to hire a guy like that full time to keep watch over his goods while he is away at the company. The sad part of this tory is that Mataya wasn’t just stealing from the company he also managed to corner some of the clients of the company to whom he was selling his stolen goods to at half the price.

Not satisfied with the work his hired hand was doing keeping close eye on the goods, Mataya took matters into his hands by hiding among the goods at night to try and catch the thief that was stealing from him. And one night he caught redhanded one of the ladies stealing two bags of American long grain rice from his loot. That was how Mataya descended on the lady tongue lashing her and calling her thief and “ashawo.”

Trust woman of easy virtue, as the word “ashawo” escaped from Mataya mouth that’s how this lady landed hot slap for bobo face tawa! On top of that she still laugh for Mataya face that pot is calling kettle black. It was as if cold water had been poured on Mataya upon hearing that phrase from her tenant. In fact the lady threaten to expose Mataya if he didn’t “settle” her. Mataya knew there and then that the end had come.

So the next day while everyone was away Mataya brought a big van he had hired loaded his goods and properties and zoomed off. To this day no one knows the whereabout of Mataya. Needless to say that the prolonged heist he perpetrated ruined the company from which it never recovered. The question is where is Mataya, the warehouse thief?