Onyedinka Esiala, a middle-aged man, was caught in Lagos begging for alms with children who had fake stomach tumors.
On Wednesday, September 28, 2022, Esiala, from Enugu State, was exposed by a passerby identified as Benefit in Mile 2.
The suspect told Vanguard that his alleged boss, Uche, started the scam and gave the children unknown drugs to make their stomachs swell. He claimed that Uche brings children to Lagos yearly when he travels to the east.
Read his confession below;
“My name is Onyedinka and I am from Enugu State. My oga is Uche. When I came from the village, I did not get any work to do; then he told me to be helping him to be taking these children out for begging.” he said.
“Whenever I am about to take the kids from Orile to Mile 2 pedestrian bridge, my Oga will give them drugs though I don’t know the name of the medicines which will make their stomach get swollen for some hours, and the kids’ mothers are aware of the business. Their mothers stay in the village.
The children were staying with them in the village before they gave them to my Oga to come to Lagos. The girls are not my sisters, but their mother often brings them to my Oga. Some kids stay a year with us, and half of the money made from begging is sent to their mothers in the village. My Oga does give them black drugs. I don’t know the name of the drugs. My Oga did not tell me the name but it’s a black drug.
My Oga brought one of the kids last year December while the other girl has spent three months with us. There is a boy among them but did not come today because he is not feeling too well.
We do not come every day. We sometimes come three times in a week. My oga’s name is Uche and we have another set of people that stay at Ajagbadi, but I don’t know the exact place. The person that handles that of Ajagbadi is different from the one handling us in Mile 2. The name is Goodluck, but he is currently not in Lagos, he traveled, and his younger brother is in charge” he added
The suspect was transported to the Nigeria Police Station Area E, Festac for more questioning after being thoroughly interrogated.
