The father of the three children who were kidnapped in Lagos by their nanny but later rescued, Leke Orekoya, recently spoke with journalists at his residence at the Lawanson area of Surulere, Lagos. He described their joy at the sight of reuniting with their children , and also advised parents to devote more time to tending for their children in comparison to their work.
The Orekoya’s highly commended the efforts of Nigeria Police Force, and also thanked the media and everybody who had contributed financially and morally toward the successful rescue of their children.
Orekoya also confirmed that the children were found in an uncompleted building where they were covered with nylon at Egbeda suburb of Lagos and their abductors abandoned them when they noticed the police had closed in on them.
“On sighting them, they were rushed down to the Police College Hospital for a necessary check-up. We passed through a traumatic experience for almost one week when we were still searching for our children. Then, I remembered how I used to bond them together when they were around; I could not sleep at all; I think about how my children could come back alive.
Although we knew that they were going to be released that day we saw them, but we were not given the actual time before they were finally released around 10.30 p.m. in the night. We were called to go and get them at Egbeda and when we got to the place, it was an uncompleted building and they were there naked.
We took them to the hospital for treatment before we brought them back home,’’ Orekoya said.
He added that the family had been subscribing for the services of a nanny through OLX for over three years and never had any complaint.
“We got our first nanny from OLX and she stayed with us for more than two years until she decided she wanted to leave. We got the second one who spent three months and told us she wanted to go and spend Easter holidays at her home town and we realised she was not coming back again. It was then we decided to subscribe for another one who spent less than two days when she perpetrated this evil. We cannot charge OLX because it was only a platform for you to meet or transact any business. We ought to have done thorough check before we finally accommodated her,’’ Orekoya said.
His wife, Adebisi, said that she had not fully regained herself from the trauma even when the children had finally returned.
“This is not our first time of hiring nanny from OLX and they did fine but the way I see this one, I think she is a professional kidnapper. The way she performed on the first day, in fact she behaved well, cleaning and taking care of the children and thus leaving no chance for suspicion. It was her behavior that convinced us that she was a very experienced nanny and left us with no reason not to allow her to take care of them before the incident. I advise that people should do a thorough check before hiring a nanny,’’ Adebisi said.
