The housemaid, who allegedly kidnapped the three Orekoya kids on April 8, was arrested yesterday by Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) operatives in Shasha, Egbeda on the outskirts of Lagos.
The 35-year-old suspect, Funmilayo Adeyemi (a.k.a Mary Akinloye), who hails from Ogboya village in Ife, Osun State, was paraded yesterday at the Command Headquarters, Ikeja, by Commissioner of Police Kayode Aderanti.
Aderanti said the suspect was arrested in Egbeda through “scientific investigation” by a special team led by the Officer-in-Charge of the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), Abba Kyari, a Superintendent of Police (SP).
She was arrested with her maid, Henriatta Odili (16), after she fled her home when she realised police operatives had closed in on her.
The police said contrary to what she told her employer and the OLX portal, her real name is Funmilayo Adeyemi and she hails from Osun State. She had earlier claimed Oyo State to avoid being traces.
According to Police sources, Adeyemi is not new in the kidnapping business; she was the mastermind of the December, 2014 kidnap of two boys, Raphael and Michael Esharegaran from their parents’ home in Magodo, Lagos. The boys were reunited with their parents after N2.5million ransom was paid.
Sources said immediately the case was reported, the SARS team swung into action, asking the Orekoyas to pay a fraction of the ransom into the account of an unnamed bank in Sagamu, Ogun State, said to have been opened in Oyo State. SARS investigation revealed a link between the contact number on the account and that of the nanny.
Funmilayo and her gang withdrew N400, 000 from the account using the ATM as the Police set up surveillance on the account and calls on the mobile phones of members of the syndicate.
According to sources, all plans to lure the nanny out of hiding failed, but sensing danger, she quickly abandoned the children, who were found Tuesday night, thinking the discovery will get the SARS team off her trail but the police stepped up their search.
On instruction of her husband, Kareem, Funmilayo hurriedly left her home in Coker Estate and lodged in a hotel with the hope of leaving the town the following day. Policemen came into the hotel and arrested her with a maid.
Funmilayo said she was given the operational name Mary Akinloye by their four-man syndicate, comprising the wife of her brother in-law, Akeem Kareem; her husband, Rasheed Kareem, brother’s wife Toke and herself.
She said: “I was working in a hotel on Victoria Island on a monthly salary of N12,000. I had my Ordinary National Diploma in Land Surveying from Osun State Polytechnic. I worked there for eight months and left for my Higher National Diploma. I have four children. The eldest is seven years old. I did not actually get married to my husband but we stayed together at Coker Estate in a new building that had not been painted and had no number.
“One day, my brother’s wife called and said somebody was looking for a househelp and asked me if I was interested. I told her that though I was looking for money to enable me do my HND, I did not like househelp job. She then said that I had been a hindrance to my husband’s family. I then accepted and called the woman looking for househelp. She asked me to meet her at PWD along Lagos-Abeokuta Expressway in Lagos, where she promised to be paying me N15,000 monthly. From there, she took me to their house.
“On Wednesday, the husband of my employer went to work and left the children with me. I then packaged two of the kids in a sack and held only one, pretending to be the mother. I boarded a bus to Ojuelegba through Iyana-Ipaja to Shasha, Egbeda, Lagos. When I reached Shasha, I called my husband who said he was already waiting at home. When I asked him if a ransom would be collected, he said being his relations, he wanted to have them with him through the holidays.”
Funmilayo went on: “One day I was watching television and I heard that the Orekoya family wanted to pay N15 million ransom and I asked him ‘why’. My husband asked me not to worry. Later, I saw on the television again that they agreed to pay N13 million. They (the Orekoyas) were already in agony. They promised to give me my own share after collecting the ransom. Unfortunately on Monday, policemen came into the hotel where I was relocated and told me that I was under arrest as a suspected kidnapper. That was the second time I would operate with them. The first one was at Makoko where a woman employed me as a househelp. When she went out for work, I called my husband and he collected N2 million and released her kid. I got N30,000 commission.
“I really took good care of the children. They never missed home because I treated them well like their mother. I gave feeder to the 11-month-old kid. On Monday morning, I was told to leave house and they lodged me in a hotel at Ogunbiyi, Shasha in the Egbeda area.”
She advised mothers to try and create time to be with their children, no matter the demands of their jobs, adding that wives should know who their husbands-to-be are before they marry them.
One of the agents who had worked for them as a housemaid and sales girl, Miss Odili Henriatta (16), said: “I completed my Senior Secondary School (SSS) and I was looking for a job. When I saw the publication on the internet that they needed a househelp, I applied. They employed me and took my phone number. The day they brought the three Orekoya kids, they told me that they were only two, whom they brought to stay with them for holidays, but I later saw three.
“They don’t allow us to watch TV. They were paying me N10,000 as a househelp and sales girl. I worked for five months but they paid me for only two months and promised to pay the rest anytime I was ready to go. I did not know that they kidnapped the three kids because they said they were children of their family relation who would stay with them for the holidays.”
“I came to Lagos from Benin on November 12, 2014 after finishing my secondary education in Ekenwan Secondary School, Benin City,” she added.
The Command’s spokesman, Ken Nwosu, a Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), said investigation was ongoing to arrest all those involved in the case.
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