…My Children Were Found Naked, Says Orekoya
…Kidnappers use Sagamu bank to receive ransom

The Lagos State Police Commissioner of Police, Mr Kayode Aderanti, on Thursday confirmed the arrest of the lady behind the kidnap of three children of the Orekoya family within the ages of 6, 4 and 11 months.

The three missing children of the Orekoya family were kidnapped by their nanny, Mary Akinloye, in Lagos State.

Akinloye was said to have been hired through an online trading portal.

In an interview with Channels Television, police sources revealed that the kidnappers, faced by immense pressure the incident had generated, abandoned the children in Shasha Area of Lagos State, Nigeria’s south-west region.

The children were immediately taken to an anonymous hospital for observation and are in the process of being re-united with their parents.

The kids between the ages of 6, 4 and 11 months old were abducted by the housemaid on April 8, a day into her job as the family maid.

Akinloye, and her accomplices, contacted the children’s’ parents and demanded a N15m ransom.

Kidnappers use Sagamu bank to receive ransom

Meanwhile, it was a joyous mood at the residence of Mr and Mrs Leke Orekoya on Lawanson Road, Surulere, yesterday as their three kidnapped children were found at an uncompleted building at Akowonjo, Egbeda, Lagos.
It still remains a mystery how the kids were rescued. While the police said that the kids were abandoned in the building when the kidnappers knew they were closing in on them, a family source said that the couple paid a ransom before the kids were allowed to go. But Leke said his family was informed through a phone call.
He said: “Immediately we got a call yesterday (Tuesday) evening, we went straight to Akowonjo only to discover that our children had been traumatised, badly treated and unfed. “The three of them were all naked. They had no clothes or sandals on them.
There were mosquitoes’ bites all over their bodies. Their bodies were also covered with rashes. We took them to the Police College Hospital for treatment. They will be there until the doctors discharge them.”
The children’s grandfather, Mr Adekunle Adeloko, said the abductors called the family to go and pick the children at Egbeda after paying a sum of money to a particular bank in Shagamu. Asked how much was involved, Adeloko said that the family would prefer to be silent on that.
But another family source said the kidnappers warned the parents not to invite the police to monitor the withdrawal of the money paid into an undisclosed bank account at Sagamu in Ogun State. It is believed that the kidnappers had already withdrawn the money before they called the parents to pick their children at Egbeda. Adeloko advised parents against going to internet to recruit housemaids.
He said: “I want to advise parents, young mothers and would be parents not to recruit from all these online advertisers. They are corrupt, not reliable, criminals and kidnappers have over flooded the internets. Before you bring any housemaid to your house, you must know her background very well, you must meet his parents or relatives one on one.” Yesterday, extended family members, neighbours, well-wishers, among others, were trouping to the Orekoyas’ house to rejoice with the family.