Ten days after a five-day-old baby was allegedly abducted from the parents’ home in Ijagbe community, Mopa-Muro Local Government Area of Kogi State, the baby is yet to be found.
It was learnt that the incident occurred at about 8pm on April 11, when gunmen invaded Mr Tosin Ojuola’s home and forced his wife to surrender the child to them at gunpoint.
Narrating the incident at the Kogi State Police Headquarters, Lokoja, yesterday, Ojuola said that barely 10 minutes after he left home, gunmen invaded his apartment, beat up his wife and asked her to surrender the baby at gunpoint.
“I left home and was on my way to church for vigil on that fateful night when I suddenly heard my wife’s voice crying and shouting for help.
“I quickly ran back to my apartment and my wife told me that two armed men had forcefully taken our baby away and ran into the nearby bush.
“I shouted for help and some youths immediately joined me to pursue the gunmen, but all our efforts yielded no result as we were not able to get them.
“We searched all the nearby bushes to some kilometers away, but because it was night, we could not go very far into the bush,” he said.
He stated that he reported the matter immediately at the Divisional Police Station in Mopa, where the police promised to investigate and search for the baby.
Ojuola said that the following morning, more villagers were mobilised to search for the baby far into the bush, including farms and Fulani settlements, but all efforts were abortive.
He explained that the police came to his house also the following day to arrest his landlord and a Fulani man, who is a tenant.
According to him, the police said they were the principal suspects. However, the matter, according to Ojuola, took a dramatic twist on April 14, when police invited him for questioning and later detained him in connection with the incident.
“The police told me that the community leaders demanded for my arrest, claiming that the village oracle, Ifa deity, revealed that I have a hand in the abduction of my own baby.
“Meanwhile, before my arrest, three of the community leaders came to my house on the third day and said that they were going to make sacrifice to the gods to expose the perpetrators and recodetain father
ver my baby.
“They asked me to provide axe, cutlass, hoe, palm kernel oil and fresh yam, which I did, and they asked me to take them to the spot where I buried the placenta of my baby.
“I took them there and they did some incantations and poured the oil on the spot, and assured me that my baby would be found.