A 50-year-old
grandmother, Rita Eze, has confessed to being a member of a syndicate that
involved in "abducting" children from Lagos and selling them in
Anambra State.
Madam Eze was
paraded along with one Ogochi Nwekei and Gladys Augustine at the Lagos State
Police Command headquarters in Ikeja yesterday. The fourth suspect, Elizabeth,
who was said to be ill, was not paraded.
Augustine, who
claimed to be Mary John, had connived with one Samuel, who is at large, to abduct
3-year-old Oluwasemilore Adebiyi, from her parents’ residence in Alagbado area
of Lagos.
To hatch the
plan, 28-year-old Augustine enrolled for beads-making apprenticeship at
Oluwasemilore’s mother’s shop in January, giving her name as Mary John. She fled
to Anambra with the girl seven days after.
The girl was
handed over to Eze, who confessed to selling her to Elizabeth through Nwekei,
for N500,000. Oluwasemilore was, however, recovered by the police after
Augustine was arrested in the Badagry area of Lagos on February 23.
It was further
reported that some parents from different parts of the state had stormed the
command and identified Augustine as the abductor of their children, saying the
suspect adopted the same gimmick with which Oluwasemilore was abducted.
The victims
included four-year-old Farouk and his sister, Kafayat, 6, who were allegedly
abducted in the Okokomaiko area in November 2016. The children had yet to be
found.
But Augustine
denied abducting the kids, saying, Oluwasemilore was her first abduction. She
said Samuel had lied to her that he and Oluwasemilore’s mother, Tobiloba
Adebiyi, gave birth to the girl, but she (Tobiloba) denied him access to the
girl.
The Cross
River State indigene stated that Samuel introduced Eze to her as his mother and
promised her N50,000 if the plan worked out.
She said, “I
came to Lagos in 2010 and I worked as a housemaid. I used the money I got to
open a shop. Eventually, I was sent away from the shop and I needed money to
start another business. I met Samuel at Mowo bus stop in Badagry in January.
“He said he
impregnated a woman and the woman (Tobiloba) left him to marry another man. He
said he wanted to get back the child, but the woman refused. He asked me to
work for the woman in order to snatch the child and he promised to give me
N50,000. On the day I snatched the girl, I took her to a bus stop and bought
her a snack.
“When I took
the girl to Samuel, he said I should take her to his mother, Mrs. Eze, in
Anambra. He said he would tell the girl’s mother that he was the one who took
her. I later returned to Lagos, thinking he had told the woman. I was surprised
when the police arrested me.”
Madam Eze told
Punch that she took N40,000 from the proceed, gave Augustine N60,000, sent the
remaining sum to Samuel. She added that she used the money to pay the rent on
her apartment.
She said, “I
met Michael in December 2016 at a party in Awka through a secondary school
friend, who is an aunt to him. He told me that he impregnated a woman in Lagos
and that he would send the child to me to help take care of her. When Gladys
(Augustine) brought the girl, Samuel told me to sell her for N500,000.
“I informed
Ogochi (Nwekei) and she said one of her friends, Elizabeth, wanted to buy a
child. Elizabeth paid N500,000. Samuel told me to give Augustine N50,000 and
another N10,000 for her transport back to Lagos, while I got N40,000. I sent
the remaining N400,000 to Samuel. I used the money to pay my house rent. I have
five children and grandchildren.”
Sixty-year-old
Nwekei said she only facilitated the sale of the girl, claiming that she did
not receive anything from the money.
“I told Rita
(Eze) that a friend, Elizabeth, wanted to adopt a child and she promised to
call me whenever she got one. One day, she called me that a child was brought
to her. I asked her whether there would not be any problem and she assured me
that there would be none. I didn’t know it would turn out this way,” she added.
The Lagos
State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, while briefing journalists on the
arrest, said the suspects would subsequently be charged to court.
0 Comments