A 51-year-old woman, Blessing Jeremiah, has been apprehended after allegedly kidnapping a three-year-old girl-child in Niger State and attempting to transport her to a buyer who had paid N530,000.
The Niger state police arrested the suspect, who reportedly stole the child from her parents in the Tudun-Natsira area of Minna, while she was trying to board a luxurious bus to heading to Nnewi in Anambra State.
Spokesperson of the state police command, Abiodun Wasiu, in a statement on Friday in revealed that the abducted girl-child has been reunited with her parents.
He said; “On October 25, 2023, at about 1930hrs, one Mrs Blessing Jeremiah, 51 years of Keteren-Gwari, Minna was seen at luxurious bus park around Maitumbi bye-pass Minna, in an attempt to board a bus to travel with a three-year-old girl suspected to have been abducted.
“Police operatives attached to Tudun-Wada Div were immediately drafted to the park and arrested the suspect with the girl child. During interrogation, she confessed that she took the child named Rahanat Abubakar, from a compound in the Tudun-Natsira area of Minna on the same date at about 1800hrs.
“She claimed that she intended to take the child to one Mrs Ejima at Nnewi, Anambra State who contracted her to get a female child for her at the rate of N530,000, while a sum of N230,000 was recovered from the suspect.
“However, the girl child has been reunited with her family, case is under investigation at SCID Minna as effort is ongoing to apprehend the said Mrs Ejima.”
Meanwhile, in similar news…
It was reported months ago that a couple were arrested by men of the Nasarawa State Police Command for allegedly stealing their neighbour’s two-year-old son.
Police Public Relations Officer in the state, DSP Ramhan Nansel said that the father of the victim, Adamu Abdullahi of Orange Market, Mararaba, Karu Local Government Area, reported to the Police on Aug. 13 at about 3:30 pm, that his two-year-old son had been missing for almost two weeks.
He said the complainant also told the police that he had received a phone call on the same day from an unknown person demanding a ransom of N2 million.
The spokesman said police detectives were immediately deployed in search of the missing child, and their efforts led to the arrest of the prime suspect and three accomplices.
According to him, the prime suspect, who is a neighbour to the victim’s father, confessed, upon interrogation, to have conspired with the other suspects, all of Orange Market, to steal the child.
He added that the suspect also revealed to the detectives that he handed the child over to his wife, who took him to Katsina State.
