The Ogun State Police Command has arrested a woman, simply identified as Asmau for stealing two children belonging to her employer and using them to beg for alms in Lagos state.
Asmau, from the Fulani speaking part of the country, served as a housemaid to the mother of the two, simply identified as Hawau in the Ogere area of Ogun state, for a period of four months before kidnapping the children Amina, 6 and Rukayya, 7.
Speaking with newsmen on Thursday, the mother of the kids narrated how the incident started.
Hawau said Asmau had been living with her and assisting her with some domestic chores while being paid N400 or N500 daily.
Hawau said, “During the Sallah holiday in July, I planned to send my daughters to their grandparents in Lagos for holiday and I invited her brother to come down to Ogun state to take her children to Lagos.
“My brother came to pick them (Amina and Rukayya) but did not meet me and my children at home on Sallah day because we had gone to the Eid ground to pray. He did not wait for me as he left for Lagos.
“When my children knew that he had come and gone they started crying, so Asmau used the opportunity and told me she was going to Lagos that day and that she will help me to take them to their grandparents, so, I agreed and asked the children to go with her.
“After two days, I found out that the children were not at their grandparents’ house, I called the woman but her number was not connecting. I checked her at her house; I did not find her and my children.
“I went round searching for them till I spent all what I had, yet I did not find them.
“I then reported to the Sarkin Hausawa of Ogere Alhaji Abdullahi Saminaka, who organised a prayer and informed the people. Luckily for me, some days later, a woman came to the palace and told the Sarkin that she saw Asmau with my children begging in Ikorodu in Lagos state.
“So, he (Sarkin) sent his men to go and bring them; one of them, called Ali told us that he found the children with the woman begging for alms in tattered clothes. We were also told that the woman removed their new sallah clothes and gave it to one woman, who was a food vendor, in exchange for food.
“The children told us that the woman used to beat them if they cried or refused to go and beg for alms. She told people, while they went begging for alms that she is their mother,” Hawau added.
The Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Zone 2, Abdulmajid Ali, who paraded the suspect at the police headquarters in Abeokuta, said Asmau was arrested with the help of the Sarkin Hausawa of the Ogere community few days after.
He said she is presently in police custody and will be charged to court soon.
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