Panic has
gripped residents of Orile-Iganmu area of Lagos State, following the
disappearance of two siblings.
The
children, Lateef Ibrahim (5) and Nimota Ibrahim (3), believed to have been abducted,
were taken on August 25, at about 7p.m, at Raimin Street, in a shop, located
opposite a mosque.
The
children’s mother, Mrs. Rashidat Ibrahim, usually used to keep them with an
elderly woman, whenever she was going to the market. When she’s returning in
the evening, she would stop at the shop to pick them.
On that
fateful Sunday, the old woman left the siblings and her own grand children in
her shop to pray in the mosque, she returned to find Lateef and Nimota missing.
A
distraught Rashidat said: “This is not the first time I used to leave the
children with the elderly woman. When I was about going out that fateful day, I
dropped them at the Arabic School. I asked them to stay with mama when they
were through with school. When I came back from the market to take my children,
they were not in the woman’s shop. In fact, when I came, I saw the old woman
praying in the mosque.
She said:
“I thought some of our neighbours took them home. I rushed home only to be told
that they were not there. I dashed back to the mosque and found the old woman,
who was through with her prayers, screaming and searching for them. People in
the mosque came to join in searching for the children. Instead of the woman to
take her grandchildren and my children to the mosque, she left them behind. To
my surprise the kidnappers, didn’t abduct her grandchildren, only my children. I’m
begging the police to rescue my children.”
The
children’s father, Mr. Ibrahim Amoo, said Rashidat was his second wife and that
he doesn’t live with them.
Amoo said:
“The children live with their mother at Ekunjimi Street, Orile-Iganmu, where I
rented an apartment for them. Whenever their mother is going to market, she
would drop them at the old woman’s shop. The shop is in front of the mosque,
where the woman sells fruits. The old woman’s grandchildren were also with them
in that shop.
“On the
fateful day of the incident, I had visited them in the morning before going
out. I was yet to get home when I received a phone call from my wife that
she returned from the market to pick our children, but couldn’t find them. I
was surprised; I left everything I was doing and rushed down to Orile.
Unfortunately, when I got to the mosque, a crowd has gathered. Everyone was
searching for our children. The grandchildren of the old woman were not taken. I
wasn’t comfortable; I asked the elderly woman why her grandchildren were not
abducted, she said she left them all in the shop and went to the mosque to
pray.”
Amoo said
that after searching the community, they went to the Amukoko Police Station to
lodge a complaint. The Divisional Police Officer (DPO) in charge of Amukoko Police
Station, promised to do everything possible to find and rescue the children.
Amoo
added: “I have been to different spiritual homes to seek for help in order to
get them back. I have incurred a lot of debt. The Lagos State Commissioner of Police
should come to our rescue.”
When the
Lagos State Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Bala Elkana, was
contacted to confirm the story, he promises to get back to our correspondent.
But as the time of filing in this report, he was yet to respond to our
correspondent.
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