Apprentice tests resolve of Lagos govt, kidnaps employer’s 3-yr-old daughter

An apprentice, Grace John may just be testing the resolve of the Lagos State government to implement its newly signed law on kidnapping in the state.

Grace did the unthinkable three days after she resumed work when she kidnapped the three-year-old daughter of her employer. Mrs Oluwatobi Adebiyi, a milliner, who also strings beads.

This is as the Lagos state governor, Akinwunmi Ambode only days earlier signed a law that prescribes the death penalty for any kidnapper in the state.

Reports say the incident occurred at Mrs Adebiyi’s shop located at 1, James Oyedele Street, Moshalashi, at Alagbado area of the state on January 23 when Grace who had met part of the conditions required for her to start as an apprentice asked that she be given permission to leave the shop only for Mrs Adebiyi’s three-year-old daughter to cry after her.

According to Mrs Adebiyi, five minutes after leaving the shop with her daughter, she saw Grace a few metres away from her shop carrying her daughter while talking to a man thinking the man she was talking to was to come and stand as a guarantor for her.

But to her surprise, she checked back minutes later from her shop and could not find Grace and the stranger she was standing with a couple of minutes ago prompting her to call the new apprentice who didn’t pick her call.

Read also: 19-yr-old lands in court for stealing bride’s N60k during wedding

Recounting the incident, the father of the missing three-year-old who revealed that there has been no call to demand for ransom for the release of their child said; “I was not at home when the incident happened. But my wife told me that while Grace was leaving the shop, our three-year-old baby was crying after her. My wife allowed her to go with Grace without an inkling of any sinister motive.

“But after waiting for about five minutes without seeing them, she went out of the shop and saw Grace standing with a man whom she concluded could be her brother that was to come and stand as a guarantor for her. She went back into the shop.

“She was tempted to go out and look for them having waited for some time. But this time around, neither Grace, the stranger nor our baby was seen. She immediately called Grace’s phone. But she kept cutting the calls, saying she was in a noisy place.

“At a point, she switched off her phone. It is so strange because this particular baby does not like strangers carrying her. We have not heard anything from her since Saturday.”

Meanwhile, the Anti-Kidnapping Unit of Lagos State Police Command has begun an investigation into the abduction of the three-year-old girl by Grace who is now in at large.

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