Another unscrupulous mafia like syndicate ring
has been exposed -a new notorious form of
racketeering with infants from Day Care Centres.
Daily Times investigation uncovered a tripartite
gang, comprising some unscrupulous Day Care
Centers (DCC), middle men who act as agents
and the operatives who are the beggars.
The operators of the unscrupulous DCCs calculate
the hours that mothers who use their services
would be at work, then release the kids out to the
agents who are responsible for distribution to the
beggars. An ex-operative in the racket
(name withheld) who became born again
volunteered information in the course of the
investigation. She told Daily Times the network
runs strictly on trust, and recruits only operatives
who come highly recommended by the agents.
“It is the duty of the agents to find operatives;
they also find the most likely place for them to
stay and ensure that both the women and the
children are safe. They are also responsible for
returning the children and their respective centers
at the appointed times,” she said.
The source further revealed that the agents
understand the risks involved in taking someone’s
child for alms begging and ensure that children
are never sent to locations where they may be
identified and some DCCs, it is believed, drug the
children to make them sleep through the
‘business’ hours.
“Children from one location are taken to a far
place so that chances of their parents running
into them would be reduced; and also, the
operatives are under watch all the time so that, if
there is any sign of trouble, they would move in
and take the operative and the children away.
Also, the safe hours are very important because a
parent must not come and not meet their wards
at the centers.” she added.
Rates differ according to the season; the festive
or important seasons attract higher tariffs per
child.
According to reports from a Daily Times
correspondent who took to the streets to
investigate further, a dark complexioned woman
was spotted around Ikeja under bridge, Lagos,
with three infants; not more than three months
old. Curiously, she was not alone; a second
woman sat beside her, carrying one of the kids.
When questioned about the paternity of the
children, how old they were and why she was out
there in the sun with them, a drama of a sort
unfolded:
The woman immediately flared up, cursing while
the second woman hastily reached for her phone,
made a quick call and lo, a blue Toyota Camry
pulled out from the Computer Village gate end,
made a quick u-turn under the bridge and slowed
down beside the women who scrambled into the
car with the infants and they sped off.
Like a rehearsed movie script, one moment the
women were there; in a few minutes they were
gone; but two things caught the eye of the
correspondent:
the children, all the while appeared to be sleeping,
even when they were being bundled into the
vehicle, none of them as much as stirred, and
secondly, the driver of the vehicle screened his
face off with a sunshade dark as the night, and
thirdly, the vehicle number plate was not
distinguishable.
A similar drama also reportedly occured at the
busy Iyana Ipaja two days later. This time, a fair
woman with a laminated photo of a set of triplets
in their infants making it appear like she was the
woman in the photo with them, was spotted. In
her arms were the triplets, all boys now about
three years old; but something curiously
noticeable is the state of the boys: they were
looking too healthy and well groomed to have
been surviving from alms begging.
Attempts to tail her home and make inquiries
from her neighbourhood, was futile as an
unbranded bus with two women and several
children picked her and the boys up about 8 a.m.
She had been there two hours and since then she
never showed up there again.
It was further learnt that the Centers take
responsibility for preparing and dressing the kids
up for business, while the agent takes
responsibility for dropping the operatives/ babies
at their ‘outlets’ and returns them at the
appointed time; DCCs then bathe the children and
freshens them up ready for their parent’s pick up.
The sight of women with two or more children,
mostly infants, sitting by the busy sidewalks, at
major bus stops, market places, and on some
busy pedestrian bridges begging for alms is no
longer strange. Like a smokescreen, the operators
shield their nefarious practices with a compelling
humanity that calls the human conscience to
question.
The age of children used for this racket ranges
from one month to six months and above,
depending on the prevailing circumstances, but
there is always room for special arrangements.
Thus, for those who take their infants to Daycare
centres, vigilance is the watchword while you can
also do quick and unexpected checks on your
kids.

dominique:
This has been going on for years. It happened in my former estate almost two decades ago when I was still very young but I was able to grasp what was going on from what the adults were saying. The day care knew the time most parents come for their babies. So they would rent out babies to beggars posing them as twins or triplets. It happened that one of the mums went on official assignment at the other side of town. Lo and behold, she sees her baby with another baby under the sun with a beggar. This was not the time of GSM so she told her colleagues to keep the woman under watch while she rush back to check if her baby is truly at the daycare. But the beggar surrendered immediately and tried to run away but they caught her. The day care was also closed down. Some people's wickedness knows no bounds. Imagine the filthy foods these babies have to eat under harsh weather conditions.

chaircover:


Wow Wow Wow
If I hadnt read your post I wouldnt have beleived the OP
This is sad
Why are people so wicked? Why?

emeka20091:
Jisos...wat are we supposed to do again to be safe with our family in naija eh?..

Surplus90:
I seriously don't know

emeka20091:
... I'm really tired of naija