MY KIDNAP STORY: NANNY SPEAKS ON THEIR MODUS OPERANDI

Fumilayo Adeyemi, alias Mary Akinloye, who while posing as a nanny, was recruited through an online portal, OLX, and disappeared with the children of Mr. and Mrs. Leke Orekoya, a day after her employment has been arrested by police.

Adeyemi, alias Mary Akinloye , was paraded yesterday, and she narrated how her gang , comprising her family ( mother-in-law, her two sons and their wives), formed a kidnapping gang to extort money from the rich.

The children are: Aderomola, 11-month-old, Adedamola, 4, and Ademola, 6. The distraught parents later received a call to pay N15 million in ransom. Adeyemi gave an insight to the police on the modus operandi of her gang, saying the recent incident was not their first. She said they were behind the abduction of two brothers, Michael and Rafael Esharegaran from their home at Magodo, Lagos while also posing as a maid.

The Esharegarans were said to have paid N10 million, though the police denied knowledge of the payment then. Adeyemi, a mother of four, said her husband, also part of the syndicate, disclosed only N2.5 million ransoms.

Besides Adeyemi, who was the only member of the gang arrested, other suspects are her mother in- law, Mrs. Kareem (other name not yet known), Megida Akanni Kareem, Akeem Kareem and Ajoke Oseni (Akeem’s wife). Other members of the gang are on the run.

Adeyemi said she was forced to be a kidnapper and the idea to kidnap the Orekoya children was conceived by Oseni who sold it to her husband as well as hers. She said: “It was my husband and my brotherin- law who pushed me into this. They got the nanny job for me and taught me what to do.

“The first day I resumed, I waited for the parents to go out. My madam is a banker, so I took the kids. I put the smallest one on my back and I took them straight to our house. When I got home, my husband and his brother welcomed me and praised me for my action.
“They put a telephone call to the parents and demanded N15 million. I told them that amount was too much. The next day, they reduced it to N13 million. My mother-in-law, who lives with us, was not happy about the whole thing. I was really unhappy too when I realised that all the dailies have started carrying the news.
Whatever happens to me today, I deserve it because my action was wicked.” Adeyemi was arrested at Coker Estate, Shasha, Akowonjo, Lagos, but her husband, who was at the scene, escaped. It took detectives more than five hours before she started talking about how her family had been celebrating, each time a ransom was paid.

Adeyemi was arrested on Wednesday with her housemaid, Henrietta Odili, 16. Investigators said preliminary investigation showed that Odili was also kidnapped. She applied to the family of kidnappers as a housemaid and when she got there, they seized her phone and refused her access to her father. Odili said: “I have not been able to speak with my parents for five months. They do not know whether I’m dead or alive.” The rescue of the kids and Adeyemi’s subsequent arrest came barely days after the SARS team, led by the Officer in Charge, SP Abba Kyari, took over the case.
The state Commissioner of Police, Mr. Kayode Aderanti, said the police rescued the three kids on Tuesday, at Shasha, Egbeda area of Lagos and the suspect, Adeyemi, was arrested on Wednesday at 9:20p.m. at Shasha, Lagos. Aderanti advised people, who want to employ housemaids, to visit the nearest police station.
Detectives believed that the family had been in the kidnap business for long, but Adeyemi said she started just last December and had only taken part in the abduction of the Esharegaran brothers and the Orekoya kids.

The police have also discovered that she used fake names on the OLX portal. A police source revealed how a trap was set for the kidnappers. He said: “Although the suspect and gang members were demanding N15 million, but I gathered that SARS detectives instructed the Orekoyas to pay a fraction of the ransom into the account of an unnamed bank.
“The account was opened in Ibadan, Oyo state. Detectives discovered a link between the contact number on the account and that of the nanny. The gang withdrew N400,000 from the account via ATM.” According to the source, detectives set up surveillance on the account and calls on the mobile phones of members of the syndicate.

Aderanti explained that sensing that the police were closing in on them, . “We encouraged the Orekoyas to maintain communication with the kidnappers. With the information gathered, the team was able to follow the link to where the nanny was arrested. “We know that she did not carry out the crime in isolation. Others are involved. I promise you that in a short while, they would also be arrested.”

Also, Orekoya said: “Due to ongoing investigation and in line with police directives, we shall not disclose the amount paid.” Orekoya added that the kidnappers requested that the money be paid into the account of an undisclosed bank, a ploy which the police asked him to comply with.
However, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Kenneth Nwosu, denied knowing if any ransom was paid by the Orekoyas. He said: “We are making frantic effort to arrest other fleeing members of the gang.