“He told us that my mummy said he should buy Caprisone for us. After that, he said we should follow him to meet our mummy, but he took us to a woman’s house where they braided our hair, gave us rice and soup.”
Those were the words of six-year-old Jumai Badmos, who was allegedly kidnapped on Wednesday afternoon in Igando, Lagos, with her four-year-old sister, Ayo, by a barber.
The children were rescued on Wednesday night by the police. Two of the suspects, Uche Emeruwa, the barber, and a Prophet, Kenneth Alozie, were arrested.
Jumai at the Police Command Ikeja yesterday with her sister and mother said they started crying after waiting for long without seeing their mother.
She said: “We were coming back from lesson when Brother Barber called us and said that our mummy told him to buy something for us…Then he said we should go with him and wait at the bus stop and when we were going, one brother who washing car said that the woman was coming. We went to the bus stop and from there they took us to another place. It does not look like a church. It was there we started crying because we did not see our mummy. And it was at that place that police came.”
Emeruwa, who admitted to have lured the children with biscuit and drink, said he was contacted by one Mama Chioma alias Chairlady to abduct two children and take them to Prophet Alozie.
The suspect, who claimed to be an apprentice-barber, said the woman told him that the prophet would “work” on him so that he can be getting children without being caught.
According to him, the siblings were his first victims, adding that he was asked to bring N6,000 for the special prayers.
He said: “I went with the woman and the children to a prophet who asked me to bring N6,000 for a charm that will enable me bring them more children without being caught.
“I knew the prophet through Chairlady and she knew me through a friend who gave her my number to contact me. This is the first time I am doing this.”
The toddler’s mother, Monsurat Badmos, said she became apprehensive when she did not see her children when they were supposed to be back.
Mrs Badmos said: “When I did not see my children, I ran to their school and was told they had left but one of the kids around later told me that my children were seen with one Uche, a barber. I quickly went to report at the police station and the policemen went on the trail of Uche at the barbing salon.
“Uche was not at the salon but his boss was at the salon. Uche’s boss was told to produce him or risk being arrested. Uche was later apprehended on his way back and taken to the police station where he first denied but later confessed. He was arrested with the prophet.”
But the prophet denied involvement in the kidnap, saying Emeruwa told him that the children were his. He said Emeruwa told him that the childern were abandoned by their mother over a year ago.
“He came to my place with the children and said that they are his kids. That their mother abandoned them for over one year and he needs prayers for their mother to return. I did not know they were kidnapped and I am not into such business,” he said.
Parading the suspects, Police Commissioner Fatai Owoseni said the command was on the trail of chairlady to ascertain if there were more victims in her custody.
