Orekoya Abduction Saga: Police Release House-help to Parents

Fulfilling the promise he made earlier last week, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police, Kayode Aderanti, on Thursday released the teenage house-help, lured to Lagos by the Orekoya kidnap syndicate, to her parents.

The 16-year-old Henrietta Otobo was handed over to her parents, Mr. Anthony and Mrs. Rosemary Otobo, at the Lagos State Police Command, Ikeja.

Funmilayo Adeyemi, alongside her husband Waheed Kareem and his brother Akeem and wife, Joke Oni, had lured the girl through the Internet to Lagos.

On her arrival, they had cut her off from contacting her parents, keeping her hostage in their house to look after their children and other kidnapped kids.

Aderanti said the handover was in furtherance of the command's effort to show that justice is fully done, while efforts to arrest others who were involved in the kidnap saga are ongoing.

Also, the state Police spokesperson, DSP Kenneth Nwosu, said the teenager's parents came from Delta state to identify and unite with their daughter.

In an interview with journalists, Mr. Ojobo, a chartered accountant, said, “I got wind that Henrietta was missing in the early hours of November 12, 2014 from her junior brother, Emmanuel.

"I live in a duplex and my kids occupy the rooms downstairs. So, when Emmanuel came and said that his sister was missing, I ran outside searching for her only to discover that the four doors leading to the gate were open.

"The following day, I went to the nearest police station in Edo state and reported a case of a missing child. On our own, we searched every other place that we felt she could have gone to, without success.

"I was shocked when on April 17, 2015, I saw her face in one of the national dailies. I am thankful to God that she is alive."