28years woman steals baby during Night vigil

DETECTIVES at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), Iyaganku have investigated the case of a 28-year-old lady, Ms Kemi Adeoye, who was arrested by policemen from Sanyo Division for stealing a baby in a church during a vigil service on Friday September 7, 2012.

The lady, according to police sources, had attended a church service on the fateful day and had picked a baby where she had been laid while her mother was praying in front of the altar.

After picking the baby, the lady had reportedly left for one of the chalets within the church premises and locked herself in, after she had put the baby on her back.

The mother had raised an alarm when she got back to her seat and beheld an empty bed without her baby on it, a situation which caused members who were at the vigil to halt the service while they trooped out in search of the missing baby.

Simultaneously, a drama had ensued at the chalet area where one of the church workers had noticed that there was an occupant in a chalet which he had not allocated to anyone. Curious to know the occupant and how he or she got the key, the workers was said to have knocked on the door.

To his surprise, a voice from inside the room replied his enquiry on the identity of the occupant with another question, asking who the man was.

The door was said to have been forced open and a woman with a baby on her back was discovered in the room. It was at that time that members of the church searching for the baby got to where the chalets were, only for the baby’s mother to see that it was her baby the woman was putting on her back.

The suspect was said to have been taken to the police station where she told the police that she was sent by a woman to go and steal a baby. She also told them that she had once taken a child from a CAC church at Apete but could not say where she took the baby to.

Narrating how she was caught by the police, the suspect, Ms Adeoye said she went to a church for a vigil service. “I saw a baby girl sleeping in the auditorium and I picked her up and put her on my back. I went into a chalet oppposite the church and sat on a bench there. A church worker came to ask me what I was doing there and I answered that I was just sitting. That was how a woman came and said that it was her child that I was carrying and I returned the child to her. The church members started shouting at me and they beat me a little before I was taken to the police station.”

The suspect said she was a graduate of University of Ado Ekiti where she did a part time programme in Social Studies. She added that she had earlier obtained an NCE in Social Studies from Oyo State College of Education, Oyo, now called Emmmanuel Alayande College of Education.

Police sources also revealed that when the woman whom the suspect mentioned was arrested by the police, she denied sending her on such a criminal mission, saying that the last time she saw the suspect was almost four years ago.

The woman, Mrs Funmilola Akande, who was nursing a baby boy, said they were attending the same church at Mosafejo along Sango/Eleyele road in Ibadan before the suspect stopped coming. She added that she was shocked when she mentioned her name.

It was further gathered that her father, said to be a lawyer, had approached the police with documents to back up a claim that the lady was of unsound mind and had been undergoing treatment in an hospital in Ibadan.

The father was said to have added that his daughter’s stepsister whom the mother had for another man was also suffering the same ailment and was currently being treated at Psychiatric Hospital, Aro in Abeokuta where the mother was while the Ibadan incident happened. He was said to have told the police that it was his daughter’s mother that was taking care of her and her absence was the reason for the girl’s action.

we confirmed the story from the acting Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Daniel Oboyi, who said that the suspect was charged to Magistrate Court 12, Iyaganku on September 17 on a one-count charge of child stealing. The magistrate granted the accused bail while her father was asked to apply to the University College of Hospital, where he claimed the accused was once admitted for treatment, for the duplicate of her case note.