Police operatives in Ogun State have arrested a 14-year-old househelp, Favour Iwuozo for allegedly abducting her employer’s two-year old baby.
In a statement issued on Tuesday by the state police command, the suspect absconded with the two-year-old victim to neighbouring Lagos state.
According to the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, Abimbola Oyeyemi, Iwuozo was apprehended following a complaint lodged at Sagamu Divisional Headquarters by one Victoria Nwafor.
The police spokesman said the complainant reported that she saw the suspect on December 22, 2021, with a very sick boy in Yaba, Lagos.
The statement added: “She stated further that the little girl (househelp) was begging for alms under the pretence that the small boy is her younger brother and that their parents died in a ghastly accident in December 2020.”
The woman was said to have taken both of them to her house in Sagamu in order to take care of the little boy whose health condition had worsened.
The police further stated that the suspect wanted to take the boy to Imo State, a situation which aroused the woman’s suspicion, prompting her to report to the police although the baby recovered fully.
On how the suspect succeeded in kidnapping the boy, Oyeyemi explained that the housemaid took the child from the church during the Sunday school period, adding that the Sunday school teacher released the baby to her after identifying her with the baby’s mother.
According to the police, upon the report, the Divisional Police Officer, Sagamu division, CSP Okiki Agunbiade detailed detectives to go and bring the girl and the little boy.
“On interrogation, the girl confessed that she was a maid to the mother of the little boy and that she left with the boy since 19th of December 2021, with the intention of taking the boy to Amaraku Umorsu in Isiala/Mbano local government area of Imo State.
“She explained further that she decided to beg for alms in order to raise transport fare to Imo State,” the police spokesman added.
Meanwhile, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Lanre Bankole has ordered that the baby’s parents be contacted urgently, while the case should be transferred to Lagos State Command whose jurisdiction the crime was committed for further investigation.