Tobiloba Adebiyi, heartbroken mother of 3-year-old Oluwasemilore, who was kidnapped by her mum’s apprentice, Mary John, a mother of one from Cross River State, who specializes in stealing children and selling to families without kids, has narrated how the suspect was arrested.
According to Tobilola, Mary John whose real name is Gladys Austin, barely spent one week as an apprentice at Alagbado in Lagos State, before she kidnapped her daughter, who was sold to 4 different buyers before being rescued by operatives of the Federal Special Anti-Robbery Squad.
“After she was arrested in Badagry, she said she had been paid N60,000 for the job before coming to my house and she had planned to kidnap two of my children. But she couldn’t because I had
said if she didn’t come with a guarantor by Monday, she should not come to work.After she kidnapped Oluwasemilore, she left for Anambra by a bus the same day, and she sold her to an elderly woman, telling the woman that my daughter belonged to a prostitute who wanted to get rid of the girl.
The woman buys new babies and resells to families without children. The policemen asked her to call the woman that she had another child to sell. When she did, the woman asked her if it was a ‘trouser’ or ‘skirt’, which was a code name for a boy or girl. We decided to give her my son as bait.”
Punch reports that she went further to disclose that those who bought her daughter, were inflicted with strange illness;
“Those people said when the child got to them, they became sick and their business started failing. Within one month, my child had been sold to 4 different families. The 4th woman was wealthy and despite falling sick, she decided to keep her and enroll her in a new school. 4 suspects have arrested in connection with the kidnapping,”