Neighbours foil attempted abduction of 4 children

A controversial incident occurred at 85 PTI road by Eroviequarters in Effurun, Delta State Monday December 19,2011 when an elderly woman believed to be over 50 years allegedly attempted toabduct 4 children playing inside an apartment.

The names of the four children who are between ages one andseven are Mariamo, Maliq, Yemi and Domerho. A neighbour of the victims, whoidentified herself simply as Rukayatu, told Fresh Angle that shesuspected the abductor’s move when she saw her peeping into the apartment ofher neighbour after pretending she wanted to buy boiled egg from her. Sheimmediately raised alarm since the woman was strange and the suspected abductorwas apprehended. “I was inside my self contain apartment hearing the sound offootsteps inside my parlour. So, I said what do you want? She then told me shewants to buy cooked egg. I told her I don’t have because I sell provision. So Iwent inside while she went outside and I was inside my house watching because Ihave (sic) not seen her before. Later, I saw her peeping into the apartment ofmy neighbour. She later went inside the house and was asking the childrenquestions and at the same time gathering them. I entered my neighbour’sapartment and beat my neighbour’s daughter, Mariamo. I told her you allowedsomebody you don’t know to enter your father’s house and even sit down. By thistime I had already raised alarm, so they apprehended the woman”, Rukayatunarrated.

She added that the suspected female abductor claimed she waslooking for a certain mama Ejiro whose identity is not known in that area.

Mother of three of the children whose apartment the abductorwas caught, Mrs. Ola Moshood told Fresh Angle that she was on her wayfrom the market when someone called her that something serious washappening.  Mrs. Ola Moshood who is afood vendor explained that when she got home, she saw a woman on the floorreceiving serious beating. According to her, when she sought to know what wasgoing on, she was told that the elderly woman who claimed to have come from Edo Stateattempted to steal 3 of her children and one of her neighbour’s. She averredthat on ransacking the woman’s jute bag, a small purse containing GSM numbers oftaxi drivers was found, while charms were discovered on her head after the wigshe was wearing was removed by angry neighbours.

There was a shocking angle to the incident when the womanalleged that the charms were given to her by a revered monarch (name withheld) inEdo State.

One of the children, Mariamo, told Fresh Angle that thesuspected abductor asked if her mother or father was around, but she respondedthat her mother went to store only for the Edoborn middle aged woman to ask her to come closer.

Fresh Anglereliably gathered that the incident which occurred at about 9am took majortwist when a policeman identified simply as Ayuba came to the scene and tookthe suspect to the Police station at Ekpan in Uvwie local government area of Delta State.According to Mrs. Moshood, mother of three of the children, the police wantedto know if she was interested in pressing charges after statements were takenfrom her and others, but she declined any interest.

She however said they were surprised when the police at Ekpandivision suddenly claimed the woman was a lunatic and she was subsequentlyreleased same day after refreshing her with soft drink.

Effort by Our Senior Correspondent to speakwith the police at Ekpan was unsuccessful as the Officer in charge of the casesuddenly became hostile for reasons not clear as at press time.

Incidents of kidnap of adults for ransom has once again rearits ugly head in Delta State, with the suspects evadingall forms of security measures.

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