Child Kidnappers On Rampage In Benue, 22 Children Get Missing In Few Weeks

Mothers raising children between the age of two and seven years in Benue State now live in fears because of the rising incidents of child kidnapping in the state.

In few weeks, about 22 children have been kidnapped in various parts of the state.
But, Governor Samuel Ortom has assured parents of the victims to remain calm promising that his government is collaborating with security agencies to recover the children.

Narrating their ordeals to journalists in Makurdi, the capital city yesterday, mothers of the kidnapped children said their children were taken away since last September without any trace of their whereabouts.
One of the victim mothers, Mrs. Ngodoo Amase 30, a mother of three children said her son, Tersoo Paul Amase 4 years old who was a pupil of Jewell Model School located on Makurdi- Gboko road, went missing since August 29, this year.

Ngodoo said her young boy who had come with her to the market on that fateful day had gone to play somewhere within the market and got missing since then.

“He left my shop at about 4pm but by 5pm when he would usually come back I didn’t see him. So, I went looking for him and in the process, a young girl said she saw my son with a woman whom she could not identify and asked where he was going but the woman told the girl she was my sister and that I had asked her to go and buy Bobo juice for my son.”
Other women whose children have been kidnapped are Mrs. Wandoo Henkyaa, Mrs. Charity Otumala and Doosuur Aer .

Narrating her ordeal to The Guardian, Mrs. Henkyaa   said she left her son, Saaondo with her sister to attend a burial program in the village and was called that somebody who introduced himself as an ‘uncle’ took him away on the claim that he was going to buy Bobo Juice for him.

Mrs. Charity Otumala and Doosuur Aer who live in the same neighborhood in Wadata area of Makurdi lost their sons the same day after an unidentified person picked them away from where they were playing.

The state Police Public Relations Officer, PPRO, Austin Ezeani had confirmed the kidnapped incidences. He said the kidnappers were selling the children for money while some were demanding for ransom from the victims’ parents.
Ezeani said the kidnappers are being traced to Enugu State and that some arrests have been made and useful information is being gathered from the suspects.