My children’s kidnap was not a scam – father of Orekoya kids

         

                           

Mr. Adeleke Orekoya, father of the 3 kids who were kidnapped by their nanny has reacted to allegations that the kidnap of his children was a scam. In an interview with Punch, Orekoye denied the allegation adding that he has been getting nannies from OLX in the last 4 years. See excerpts from the interview below; 

On the allegation that the kidnap was a scam; 

If it was a scam, I must be very good to have scammed the police commissioner, SARS, the State Security Services, and all the security agencies, because they were all involved, making telephone calls, managing telephone calls, including mine, my wife’s, and anyone that had communication with me, including pressmen. So, I would have been very good to have outsmarted all of them. This is part of the reason why Nigeria as a country finds it hard to grow. When everything involves money, we always think it is a scam.

Why don’t you want to talk about the ransom?

If one mentions that a ransom was paid or not paid, what difference would it make? But one thing is clear, the fact that the children are back was the ultimate goal of everything we had done. Now, if at all a ransom was paid or not paid and people talk about the amount, the lives of people that also have nannies would be at risk because everybody would be thinking that nannies are gold miners and would want them to kidnap kids for them.

Was a ransom paid in this case and how much was paid?

I cannot confirm if a ransom was paid. I cannot even confirm anything around the ransom as we speak. All comments about the ransom will be made once the investigation is complete.

But it should be an easy thing for you to say if the police were involved in the rescue or not?

No, I cannot make any comment in that regard.

Was this your first attempt at getting a housemaid?

No. Getting housemaids on OLX has been a normal practice for us. We have been doing it for the past four years. In fact, two nannies before this lady were hired through OLX. The agent of that nanny responded to us and sent us several nannies and we interviewed them. It was not the first time. The last nanny stayed with us for two years but she left late last year.