By Ghazali Ibrahim
A Lagos event planner whose bag containing a MacBook Pro and four external hard drives was stolen during a wedding at the Oriental Hotel has announced the recovery of all her belongings following a public appeal that attracted widespread attention on social media.
The victim, who uses the X handle @deeeeoflagos, disclosed the development on Thursday, November 5, thanking Nigerians who helped circulate the CCTV footage of the individual allegedly responsible for the theft.
“Every item has been recovered; even tho he formatted the files it can still be retrieved back,” she wrote in an update to her earlier post.
She also appreciated those who supported her efforts to recover the equipment, adding, “A big thank you to everyone who came through to help out. God bless you.”
The incident reportedly occurred on October 31, when the victim was covering a wedding ceremony at the Lagos hotel.
According to her earlier account, her bag was taken from inside the bride’s room, where it had been kept during the event.
The stolen items included a MacBook Pro M1 and four external hard drives containing photographs and other materials from approximately five weddings yet to be delivered to the couples.
Disturbed by the possible loss of the wedding projects, she had appealed to members of the public for assistance, describing the missing files as people’s once-in-a-lifetime memories, months of professional work and her source of livelihood.
She also offered a ₦500,000 reward for credible information that could lead to the identification of the individual captured in the CCTV footage and recovery of her belongings through the appropriate authorities.
The footage, which later circulated widely online, reportedly showed the individual entering the hotel, moving around the premises and leaving with the stolen bag.
The public appeal generated reactions from social media users, including other individuals who claimed to have experienced similar thefts at events in Lagos.
Although the recovery of the equipment has brought relief to the victim, the condition of the files remains a concern, as she disclosed that the storage devices had been formatted.
She, however, expressed optimism that the files could still be retrieved.
As of the time of filing this report, details surrounding the recovery operation and the whereabouts of the individual allegedly involved in the theft had not been publicly established.
