A yet-to-be identified child abductor, who
confessed to being part of a 27-woman
syndicate from Benin Republic, narrowly
escaped being lynched yesterday when she
was caught at Aka Road, Okokomaiko area
of Lagos. The lady, it was gathered, was usually seen
around the area behaving like a lunatic, but
became ‘sane’ when she was apprehended
yesterday morning trying to abduct a child. Obviously scared for her life when she was
caught in the act, the yet-to-be identified lady
reportedly began to divulge information of
her activities. According to the suspect: “we were 27 women that came as a syndicate from Benin Republic.
Each woman was given five phones
to contact their buyers once the
targets, mainly little children, were
found. We then discard the phone
after transactions to avoid been traced. The abduction is for outright
sale, not for a ransom.” Vanguard gathered that the missing child
count in Okokomaiko and its environs, in the
last two months, is about seven. Few days
ago, in the same Okokomaiko, another
female child abductor was apprehended
after she successfully kidnapped a child and attempted to kidnap the second child before
she was noticed. Unfortunately, she could not produce the
first child before she was whisked away by
the police. Lamenting, a resident in the area,
Omowummi Ireti, said: “In the last one year, the trend of
women kidnapping children has
been on the increase. “Fortunately,
some of the women involved have
been caught in recent times and
they are always rescued from the mob and whisked away by the
police. But the sad thing is that
nothing is ever heard of the outcome
again. If the Nigerian Police is a serious
outfit, one of such ‘arrests’ is
enough lead to get to the root of this
syndicate and crack it.” When Vanguard visited the Okoko Division
Police Station, the suspect was a shadow of
herself as she had been beaten to stupor.
She was vomiting and acting funny. Contacted, the Lagos State Police Command
Public Relations Officer, SP Dolapo Badmos,
said that the case had been transferred to
state CID, Panti.
