The Lagos State Police Command on Thursday, February 28, 2019, apprehended one Christiana Onuchukwu for stealing and keeping in her custody, two children declared missing in 2014.
Luck ran out on the said Christiana Onuchukwu when one of the abducted children named Ikimot,12, came to Denton Police Station and reported that she was taken away from her parents some years ago and handed over to a woman she now calls mum. She mentioned her abductor’s address and asked the police to reunite her with her parents.
Based on her complaint, the DPO in charge of Denton Police Station, CSP Saheed Quadri, led a team of detectives to No.1 Ogati Street, Fadeyi, Lagos, where the suspect was apprehended.
When the suspect and her victim were debriefed, the child stated that she was seven years old when she started living with the suspect and that her present age is 12. She mentioned another little boy called Okashetu Musa as another victim of the suspect. Thus, the DPO dispatched a team of detectives to rescue the boy who was abducted when he was six but now eleven years old.
In his own account, the boy who could still speak Hausa said he once lived in the Ebute Meta area of the state with his mother.
The leader of the Hausa community in Ebute Meta was invited to the station to help link the child to his parents. The leader, after consultation with his subjects, claimed that the mother of the boy, a blind woman, had relocated to Kastina State having lost hope on the possibility of finding her child.
According to the Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer, Chike Oti, the children have been reunited with their parents while the suspect was on Tuesday, March 5th, 2019, charged to Ebute Meta Magistrate’s Court 5 with conspiracy, abduction and child stealing.
The CP has directed the Divisional Police Officer to intensify efforts in ensuring that all the persons connected with the crime are arrested and prosecuted.
