‘I stole toddler because of 10-year barrenness’

Akwa Ibom police rescue a month-old-baby and four-year-old boy from suspected trafficker, kidnapper

The Akwa Ibom State Police Command has rescued a month-old-baby from a suspected trafficker, who took the baby to Abia State.

Again, another suspected kidnapper was arrested as he and his gang abducted a four-year-old boy from his aunt in Ukanafun Local Council of the state.

While parading the suspects, Mrs. Peace Chukwuemeka, 30 from Mbaino, in Imo State, who allegedly stole the baby, and John Aniekan, 24, one of the suspected kidnappers, yesterday at the Police Headquarters, Ikot Akpan Abia, the Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Cordelia Nwawe, warned parents to be vigilant once “they see unknown faces around them.”

It would be recalled that in October, the state police command rescued a four-month-old baby in Port Harcourt from a woman, who bought the baby from the mother in Ibesikpo Local Council.

According to the PPRO, the suspect came from Lagos to visit a friend in Akwa Ibom and stayed in the compound where the baby’s mother, Mrs. Fatima Ibrahim, was living at Mbak Itam, in Itu Local Council.

It was alleged that the suspect, who had been married for about 10 years without giving birth, drugged the mother of the baby and stole the child. She later took her to Abia State, where she handed over the baby to her mother.

The recovered four-yesr-old

“She has been married for 10 years without a baby. She came from Lagos to Akwa Ibom to look for where to steal baby. She went to Mbak Itam to stay in the compound where the baby and her mother lived. She monitored the baby’s mother before stealing the baby,” the PPRO stated.

Confessing to the crime, Mrs. Chukwuemeka said: “I am here because I stole a baby. I came to visit my friend. I did not do anything to the mother of the baby. I saw her sleeping and she was coughing and I believed she was not ill. That was why I used the opportunity to take the baby.

“I took the baby to my mother in my village. I called her to come to the Abia Tower to carry the baby and when she came, I told her that the baby was mine. She now carried the baby and asked me to come with her to the village. I refused because I wanted to go back to Akwa Ibom,” she confessed.

The suspected kidnapper, who claimed to be a commercial motorcyclist, said he gained admission into a federal polytechnic in Imo State without enough money to pay his fees. He said he was lured into kidnapping to have enough money to pay for his school fees.

“I don’t know the boy. I took the boy because I got admission into Federal Polytechnic in Imo State and I did not have anybody to help me. I have been riding Okada and the money I get from that was not enough to pay for my acceptance fee.

“My colleagues planned to kidnap the boy so that we could ask the father for a ransom of N200,000 so that I could use it to pay for my admission,” he said.

Both parents thanked the police for a job well done. They also thanked God that they had been reunited with their children after passing through such trauma at their tender age.

Mr. Augustine, who hails from Okobo Local Council, but does business in Ukanafun, was filled with joy as the police rescued his son, saying he was not at home when the incident happened.

The police assured the parents that “once investigation is concluded, anybody found culpable will be charged to court.”