Grandmother & Two Accomplices Arrested in Case of Kidnapped 3 Year Old Child

50-year-old grandmother, Rita Eze, was paraded alongside Ogochi Nwekei and Gladys Augustine at the Lagos State Police Command headquarters in Ikeja on Tuesday. The trio were said to be members of a syndicate that is allegedly involved in abducting children from Lagos and selling them in Anambra State. There was a fourth suspect, Elizabeth, who was said to be ill, and  was not paraded.

Punch Metro reveals that Gladys connived with a man identified only as Samuel to abduct three-year-old Oluwasemilore Adebiyi, from her parents in Lagos. There is a present search going on for Samuel. 28-year-old Gladys enrolled to learn 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 she started. 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.

Upon the news of Gladys’s arrest, heartbroken parents came out to point her out as the abductor of their children, some of which are still yet to be found. Gladys however denied the accusations, stating that this was the first time she ever kidnapped a child. She also said that Samuel lied to her, saying that Oluwasemilore was his daughter, and her mother denied him access to her.

“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.”

Rita, who is has five children and grandchildren, told reporters her own side of the story, stating  that she only went along with the plan to pay her house rent.

“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.”

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Ogochi, who spoke lastly to reporters, said that she did not get any money from the sale of the girl, she only facilitated the sale, as she had a friend who wanted to adopt a child.

“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,”

The Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Fatai Owoseni, during a briefing  said the suspects would subsequently be charged to court