Worshippers at a Pentecostal church in Ibadan, Oyo State were held spellbound recently when they discovered a baby they had all been searching for with a woman in another section of the church. What could have made a woman who supposedly came for prayer steal another’s child?
For Florence Adeyemi, an Ibadanbased housewife, her belief in the Lord quadrupled recently when her toddler was rescued from a suspected kidnapper. Adeyemi is reputed to be very religious, an avid lover of vigil and prayer meetings. Recently, Florence joined scores of worshippers at a Pentecostal church at Sanyo Area of Ibadan, Oyo State. She had reportedly arrived at the church around 8:30 pm that fateful day. She had come to the vigil with her baby, unsure of what lied in wait for her.
All through the night before the vigil commenced proper, Adeyemi was noticed cuddling and playing with her baby to the admiration of other women worshippers in the church. But among the stream of heads at the vigil was a 28-year-old woman, identified as Kemi Adeoye. Events later showed that Adeoye had her own mission. Rather she was there on a mission to kidnap any child that comes her way, and she found Adeyemi’s baby perfectly fitting into her plans.
Adeoye reportedly had a kid for a man she married immediately after graduation from the University of Ado Ekiti where she studied Social Studies. But when Adeoye and her husband could not get along well after their first child, the couple was separated and she took to learning fashion designing to be able to eke out a living. It later turned out that Adeoye’s income from her tailoring work was not sufficient for her.
She then resorted to snatching babies and selling them to those in need of them. On that fateful day, while Florence prepared her baby for sleep shortly before the vigil began, Adeoye was watching the woman’s movements.
When the bell was rung for members to gather inside the church for the vigil service, Adeyemi reportedly laid her baby at the entrance of the vicarage in the church premises. After the baby had been fast asleep, Adeyemi left the baby there and went straight inside into the church. By that time, all entrance into the church compound had been securely locked.
Several minutes after Adeyemi had joined the programme, Adeoye reportedly tiptoed to where the baby was and using a handkerchief to cover its mouth, she whisked the baby into one of the many rooms of the vicarage.
Because the gates to the compound had been locked, Adeoye could not take the baby outside the premises. Instead, she chose to hide with the baby inside a room until such a time that worshippers would be ready to go home.
She intended to use that opportunity to take the baby out of the compound. About an hour after Adeyemi had laid her baby at the entrance of the vicarage, she came out to check on her but was alarmed when she could not find her baby where she laid her. The hapless woman soon went wild shouting at the top of her voice. Adeyemi’s shout was said to have drawn the attention of the congregation and that brought the vigil service to an abrupt end as virtually everyone in the church joined the search party for the missing child. One of the officiating ministers soon found a room locked from behind and from where he had left for the church when the prayer session was to commence.
Apparently not locking the door when he was going out, the man became curious and banged at the door repeatedly but no response came from within. The curious pastor had to seek an iron rod to break open the door and after he had broken the door, there he was face to face with Adeoye and the baby they were all looking for. The resulting shouting match between the pastor and Adeoye soon drew the attention of other worshippers at the church.
The leadership of the church immediately contacted the Sanyo Divisional Police Headquarters from where a team effected Adeoye’s arrest and had her detained, albeit briefly, after which she was transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Iyaganku, Ibadan. Speaking with reporters at the police station, Adeyemi claimed her joy knew no bounds when her baby was found alive in the hands of the kidnapper.
“My mood was too bad that day. I felt like hitting her. I could have hit her and bit her ear off if not for the people that prevented me to move closer with her. Upon all the noise over her, she did not look as if she realised what she did was a crime.
I give glory to God for not allowing her to take my baby out of the premises before we caught her,” Adeyemi said. Upon her arrest, Adeoye confessed to her crime but claimed that she was sent to kidnap the baby by one Funmilayo Akande. Giving an insight into how she kidnapped the baby, Adeoye said: “I saw the baby sleeping and walked up to her and carried her.
I tied her at my back and left the place. I then saw a room where I was when they saw me with the baby.” Police investigations though revealed a link between Adeoye and Akande, yet the police said they have no evidence of the duo’s recent contact. Akande was consequently allowed to go home. In the words of a police source, “It is not proper to hold an innocent person for offence she did not commit.
The parlance is that it is better a policeman allows 100 criminals to escape than punishing one innocent person. Before we went after the woman, we had gathered some information about her from her area.
This helped us to quickly resolve the matter.” Acting Police Public Relations Officer of Oyo State Police Command, Daniel Oboyi, confirmed the development and said that the law enforcement agents were on top of the situation.
Source: The National Mirror.
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