A five-day-old baby allegedly abducted atIjagbe community, Mopa-Muro Local Government Area, Kogi,10 days ago has not been released.
The incident occurred at about 8 p.m. April 11 when the gunmen invaded the home of Mr Tosin Ojuola and at gun point, forced his wife to surrender the child to them.
According to him, he left home for church when the gunmen arrived and invaded his apartment, beat up his wife and asked her to surrender the baby at gun point.
”We searched all the nearby bushes to some kilometers away, but because it was night, we could not go very deep into the bush,” he told the police.
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 that 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 that they were the principal suspects.
But, Ojuola said that the matter took a 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 hand in the stealing 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 their gods to expose the perpetrators and recover 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.
”To my greatest surprise and shock, it was the same people that asked the police to arrest and detain me for allegedly stealing my own baby,” he said.
Ojuola stated that the case was later transferred to the State CID at Police Headquarters, Lokoja, on Wednesday.
”I have since been in police cell for seven days without food and without any hope of finding my stolen baby. My image has been tarnished.
”Why would I do such evil against my own baby? I am a farmer, and a staff of Mopamuro Local Government Council, I have five children.
“The stolen baby was my sixth child. I am still owing N4,000 at the clinic where I took the baby to after he was delivered at home.
”I have spent over eleven years in the community, my aged parents are in the same community; I have never been involved in any crime in my life.
”I am innocent; I am a devoted and committed Christian. How would I steal my own baby, to do what and for what,” he explained.
”I am appealing to the police to conduct a thorough investigation and fish out the perpetrators, and help me to rescue my baby because I am helpless,” Ojuola pleaded.
Shade Ojuola, his wife and mother of the baby, in tears, expressed sadness over the snatching of her baby at gunpoint.
Mrs Ojuola who corroborated her husband’s earlier statements, called for immediate release of her husband to enable the family to continue the search for their baby.
”I am begging the police to please free my husband from cell in Lokoja because he is innocent; he can never do such a thing; he is a hardworking man, and he fears God.
”We have been married for 11 years now with five children, and he loves me and all our children; I don’t want to lose him,” she said.
The traditional ruler of Ijagbe, Chief Amushin Adeleye, who also spoke to NAN on phone, confirmed the incident.
He, however, denied any involvement in the arrest and detention of Tosin, the father of the baby.
He said that Tosin had never engaged in any form of criminality, violence or social vice in the community.
The monarch further confirmed that the two people the community suspected after findings and consultations were Ojuola’s landlord, Samson Johnson and one Fulani man, Umoru Isah.
He said that the community later reported Johnson and Isah as suspects to the police.
The traditional ruler appealed to the police to release the baby’s father and ensure that justice was done in accordance with the law.
When contacted, the Commissioner of Police in the state, Mr Hakeem Busari, said that he was aware of the matter.
When told that the complainant in the case, Mr Tosin Ojuola, had been in detention at the CID section, Busari expressed shock and asked for time to enable him to find out the real situation of things from the Officer in charge of CID.
However, the commissioner did not get back to NAN as promised and attempts to re-establish link with him failed as his mobile phone had been switched off.