Barber Abducts Widow’s Two Daughters

A barber, identified simply as Uche, has been accused of kidnapping two sisters, Jumai (7) and Ayomid Badmos (4), at Igando area of Lagos State. Uche had been lurking around Olorunfemi Street, where the victims’ mother resides, before he eventually abducted them when they were returning from summer coaching about 1p.m. on Tuesday.

The suspect was said to have lured the children with biscuit, but another pupil, identified as John, rejected the offer and ran away. Unfortunately Jumai and Ayomide went with the abductor.
A neighbour, Mrs. Evelyn Onyebuchi, said the abducted girls and her children went to the same summer class, but Jumai and Ayomide stayed back in school to play. According to her, it was when they were returning that they were kidnapped.

She said: “On Tuesday when I woke up, I saw the two girls were playing in our compound but their mother had already ‘prepared’ them for the lesson. She gave their breakfast to an elderly woman who runs a shop near their house and instructed them to go to their summer class from there.
“Their mother always goes to the market in the morning, which is why she always gets them ready early, even before the holidays. She is a widow with nobody to assist her and the children are still young.
“About noon when my children came, they told me both Jumai and Ayomide were playing in the school. “Immediately the abducted girls’ mother came back from the market, she came inside the compound and asked after her children.
But I told her my children said they were playing in school. “But a few minutes later, she rushed into the compound again screaming and weeping profusely that she could not find her children. That was how we started searching for them within the community throughout Tuesday.”

Onyebuchi added that when they were still searching for the girls, a young boy, David, told them that he saw Uche and the children on their way to Olowo Nla area. She said: “Some people went to Olowo Nla, while others went to his shop to copy his phone number.

But Uche refused to pick his calls.” However, Uche was said to have been apprehended with the help of the owner of the salon, who called him on the phone that they had something to sort out in the shop.

Immediately he surfaced policemen from Igando Division and members of Oodua People’s Congress (OPC), who had laid siege to the area, picked him up. Another resident, who did not want her name in print, said the suspect had in the past been arrested for a similar offence at Iba. According to her, that was what brought him to Igando.

She said: “The suspect would have gone with the three children, if not because of the intelligence of the other boy who escaped. By now we would have been searching for the three of them. I am appealing to the police to rescue the girls on hurt because their mother is a widow.

She is the one taking care of her children alone.

” The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Igando Division was said to have gone to Panti, Yaba, when our correspondent got there.
But when contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), SP Dolapo Badmos, said police had rescued the girls.She said: “The suspect has been arrested while the two abducted sisters have been rescued. They are, however, still at the Igando Police Division.”