The suspects, Morenike and Shittu, were arrested at
Mosafote, Unity Road, Ogun State.
The couple’s neighbours were said to have become suspicious
a few months ago after Morenike brought a child to the home in the evening and left
the following day with the child.
She was said to have done this on four different occasions,
before she was caught with a four-year-old girl. The girl was later found to
have been abducted in Ibadan, Oyo State.
Residents further claimed that Morenike, whenever she
abducted children in Ogun State, takes them to Oyo State, and if it was Lagos
she stole the children, she would move to Oyo State, to sell them.
It was gathered that neighbours started to closely monitor
Morenike after she brought in a four-year-old girl around 9pm Sunday last week.
She had strapped the abducted girl to her back and was
leaving the neighborhood on Monday morning, when a community leader, Chief
Toyeeb Balogun, confronted her.
Balogun, who spoke with our correspondent, said he took her
to the palace of Baale of Mosafote, for questioning.
He said: "People have been saying that Iya Ahmed
(Morenike) used to bring strange children into the community in the evening and
take them away the following day. On October 8, she came in with a girl of
about four-year-old. The girl looked malnourished. The next day, she left home
with the girl and didn’t return with her.
“After that incident, some neighbours reported to the Baale.
He told them to start monitoring her. Around 12pm on Sunday, some residents
came to call me that they saw her leaving the community with another girl. I
rushed to meet and asked her about the identity of the girl. She said the girl
was her sister’s child. She said her sister lives at Egbeda. We took her to the
palace. When we got there, she told the Baale that the girl’s mother was in
Ipaja. We then took her to FSARS office in Warewa. Her husband came to the
station and told the police that she usually brought girls from Ilorin, Kwara
State.
“They asked him what the children were used for, he said he
did not know. Both of them have been detained. This is the fifth time Morenike
would be seen with an unknown child.”
The landlady of the apartment where the detained couple
live, alleged that Morenike had been arrested twice for similar crimes of
stealing and selling children, but was released.
The Baale, Chief Sakiru
Ademuyiwa, said that Morenikeji was asked to call the parents of the girl on
the telephone, but she didn’t.
Ademuyiwa explained that he decided to involve the police
in the case after the alleged parents did not show up.
Ademuyiwa added:
"She called somebody who claimed to be the mother of the girl. The
person said she live in Ipaja, Lagos. I asked her to come to my palace with the
father of the girl. I waited for several hours, but the so-called parents did
not show up. When she was further interrogated by the police, she said the parents
of the girl were in Ijebu. When the abducted child was questioned about her
parents, she said they live in Agodi, Ibadan. She said her father’s name is TK.
I have told the police to handle the matter very well.”
When contacted the Ogun
State Police Public Relations Officer(PPRO) ASP, Abimbola Oyeyemi
promised to get back to our correspondent on the matter.
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