Kunle Falayi
A resident of Ndemili community in
Ndokwa West Local Government Area of Delta State, Festus Nwaomucha, has
narrated how a kidnapping gang, which included a 70-year-old woman, sold
his five-year-old niece for N500,000
According to Nwaomucha, a number of
children had been going missing in the community over time but on
September 24, his niece, Glory Oyibo, was snatched right from the family
compound in Ndemili, throwing the family into a panic over what might
have happened to the little girl.
He said for over two weeks, the family
made several efforts to locate the child but they got a break on
November 13, when news filtered in that two kidnappers had been caught
in Issele-Uku, a suburb of Asaba, with two children in their vehicles.
Saturday new learnt that when
the two suspects – Emmanuel Udagwu, a resident of Agbor Alidinma and
Celestina Enebeli from Ulogwe Isumpe – were arrested by the police, they
confessed to have been involved in some previous kidnapping of children
from Ndemili and surrounding communities.
Nwaomucha said the two communities the
suspects come from, share boundaries with Ndemili. They confessed
kidnapping about nine children so far in the entire localities.
“When they kidnapped children, they
transported their victims to Asaba, where a 70-year-old-woman received
the victims for onward ferry to other places for sale,” he said.
The septuagenarian, who has since been arrested has reportedly made statements about the clients he sold the children to.
“The old woman confessed that she had
sold my little niece along with another victim, a boy, for N500,000 to
some people in the East. She sold them through another man in Asaba. The
man outsmarted us during arrest, abandoning his taxi colour car,” he
said.
The police have said efforts are still ongoing to recover Glory and other stolen victims from wherever the gang sold them to.
“I want to thank all those who have been
standing by my family through prayers, which have paid off. We are
still praying for Glory to be alive in captivity so that she can be
found in good health and reunited with her parents and other siblings,
who have not stopped crying day and night since she was kidnapped,”
Nwaomucha said.
The police have said they are working to
ensure that other members of the gang were rounded up while the
identities of missing children would be determined to effect their
recovery from where they are sold to.
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