Individuals and families go to church to worship on Sundays. But a mother of two, Kemi Owolabi, her 10-year-old daughter and a relation, a boy of about five years, do so for a totally different reason. They have devised the most ingenious way of pilfering worshippers' bags at the close of service.
Their operation had been successful until last Sunday when nemesis caught up with the thieving mother and her children at Word Base Assembly (WBA), a Pentecostal church in Okota, Lagos. Female members had reported cases of missing bags for three consecutive weeks until the church authorities decided to take action. Intent on catching the thief, the authorities set a trap, into which Kemi and her little accomplices fell headlong.
Modus operandi
Kemi, who drives a white BMW 7 Series, usually waits in the car while the kids are in the church sizing up beautiful bags to purloin.
Narrating their modus operandi that would shock the most imaginative of thieves, Kemi admitted to Sunday Sun after she was nabbed that she would sit in the car outside while the boy fetched, ostensibly, 'mummy's' bag from among others. After all, why would you suspect a five or six-year-old walking away with his mother's bag? If questioned, however, Titi quickly rose up to his rescue, telling the boy that that was the wrong one and that mummy had found her bag.
Trained and smart as the juvenile apprentices in Fagin's school for young pickpockets in Dicken's Oliver Twist, Titi and her sibling deceived unsuspecting church members week after week by stealing their bags right under their noses. And once the bags were in the kitty, in this case, Kemi's car, off she goes straight to Ifako-Bariga, where she resides, or to another church for more bags.
After cleaning out the contents, the bags are usually discarded in the next church they purloin. On one of the Sundays, they 'visited' three other churches in the area, stealing and exchanging bags at a church holding service at City Plaza along Ago Palace Way, the Latter House Parish of the Redeemed Christian Church of God nearby and the Good Shepherd Parish of the Anglican Church. For that week, some of their loot included cell phones, cash and lots of women things.
Arrest
Like most greedy thieves, Kemi stretched her luck too far. Perhaps, propelled by a force beyond her understanding, she returned again to Word Base Assembly on March 22 to carry out her nefarious act. Like other times, her daughter and relation were in tow. As before, they made their move after the service had ended. But it turned out this was not a day like others.
Unaware that church members were watching keenly over a bag - bait actually - the boy locked on it like a missile-seeking heat. Caught red-handed at last, he led members to his 'mother,' who was waiting in her car outside the church.
Confronted, the Ogun State-born woman, who said her husband is abroad, admitted sending the children to pilfer worshippers' bags. She later led our reporter, members of the church and others contacted through their recovered phones in her possession to the three other churches they had visited. On the whole, six bags were recovered, containing various sums of money, cell phones and other items.
"My name is Kemi Owolabi. I'm married; I'm from Ogun State and I live in Bariga," she responded when interviewed by Sunday Sun.
She, however, admitted remorsefully. "Yes, I asked the children to go into the church to steal bags. I don't know what pushed me into it," she further said, before she stopped talking as tears welled up in her eyes and lifting her hands to her head.
Confirming the development, a WBA member, Mr Emmanuel Bribena, said: "It was the first time something like that would be happening in the history of the church. We thought it was odd. So we decided to set a trap for the thief."
A few weeks ago, some under-10 children were also caught with cell phones of members in a popular Pentecostal church at Onikan, Lagos. Interrogated, the tykes admitted to stealing the phones on instructions from their parents.
Kemi was later handed over the police at the Ago Police Station. At the time of filing this report, she had been released on bail while her impounded car was seen parked at the premises of the station.[email][/email]

Praise the Lord. This reminds me of the time a few years ago when former Nigerian dictator Babangida had his $600 ostrich-skin shoes stolen outside the mosque while His Excremency was inside praying for justice.

This is a serious matter. That woman has taught those kids the art of stealing even at their tender ages, no one should be surprised if they become notorious armed robbers tomorrow, at least the foundation has been laid for them now. That lady is a shame to womanhood.

Na wa oo!

It is the work of the devil.

the devil is a liar.

Hmmm na wah o. I have now heard it all!

The church pastors are the biggest thieves