Grace John, 28, accused of kidnapping her boss’ daughter, Oluwasemilore Adebiyi, 3, has said she only assisted the baby’s real father to collect her. .
John was paraded at the Lagos State Police Command Tuesday alongside two other women- Rita Eze and Ugochi Nweke- alleged to be buyers of the girl.
According to the apprentice, one Samuel approached her and told her that the baby’s mother, Mrs. Oluwatobiloba Adebiyi, was his lover and got pregnant for him before marrying another man. .
She claimed it was the said Samuel who took her to the woman’s shop at Alagbado in January, where she later took the child and carried her to her alleged grandmother. .
The child was sold to three different buyers for N500, 000 and N600, 000 before her eventual rescue in Aba, Abia State. John said: “Samuel instructed me to take her to his grandmother, Rita Eze, in Onitsha, because he is in school.
I handed over the child to Rita, and she gave me the sum of N60, 000. I never knew the child was not Samuel’s and I have never thought what I did was kidnapping. I just wanted to help a man who cried to me that his child is not being properly taken care of. I have not done it before.”
Corroborating John’s story, Eze said she knew Samuel through an old classmate of hers, who told her they needed someone to take proper care of his child. She however stated that after taking delivery of the child, Samuel told her to sell the girl and she obliged.
She said: “Samuel told me to sell the girl which I gave to Ugochi Nweke. Ugochi gave me N500, 000. I gave Grace N60, 000 and took N40, 000. I sent the rest to Samuel. I never knew him before; I thought the child was his. .
I never knew the child was kidnapped. I only accepted to help sell the child because I needed money to pay my house rent.” Nweke denied knowing the baby was kidnapped, adding that she didn’t collect a dime from the deal. .
She said she accepted to buy the baby in order to help a friend of hers who couldn’t conceive. Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni said the suspects would be prosecuted at the conclusion of investigation.