A 35-year-old man, Uche Emeruo, arrested for allegedly kidnapping
two sisters, yesterday told police in Lagos that he was working in
consonant with a pastor.
Emeruo and the cleric, Pastor Kenneth Anozia of the Hope in God
Willing Ministry, were paraded yesterday for the abduction of girls,
Jumai (7) and Ayomide Badmos (4), at Igando area of the state on
Tuesday. Emeruo said a woman, identified as Mama Chioma, contracted him
through his girlfriend to kidnap the toddlers.
He said: “I was sleeping on Sunday last week when the woman called me
on the phone, that she got my phone number from my girlfriend. She said
I should get her two girls. She said she was taking them to orphanage
home.
She promised to compensate me handsomely if I could get her what she
wanted. “That was how I started searching for who to kidnap in the
community.
Immediately I saw the two sisters coming from summer coaching, I
approached them and lied that their mother asked me to buy fruit juice
for them. That was how they went with me.” Emeruo, however, said after
buying the juice, he took them to the woman, where she asked him to meet
her.
He added: “From there we went to the pastor’s church where the
toddlers were later handed over to the pastor. “When we got to the
pastor’s church, the woman and the pastor went inside to discuss in
secret. Later, the pastor came back to me, that I should bring N6,000,
for him to prepare a charm for me.
He said the charm would assist me in getting more children for them.”
The suspect added that after delivering the girls to the woman and the
pastor, he went home to change his clothes and was on his way out when
policemen picked him up at Akesan bus stop. He said: “I led them to the
church. But unfortunately, the woman was not there. The toddlers were
rescued and the pastor was arrested.”
On his part, Anozia denied partaking in the abduction of the girls.
He said: “I was in my church when Emeruo brought the girls and asked me
to counsel him. He said his wife had abandoned him with the two girls. I
advised him to take the children to his in-law. I did not know the man
before that day. “I can’t involve myself in kidnapping, because I have
my own children. If my own children were abducted, I would not be
happy.”
But Emureo interrupted the pastor. He said both the woman and the
pastor were working together. Jumai said there were three other girls in
Mama Chioma’s house when she and her sister got there. She also said
that the woman told one of the girls to plait hair for her and her
sister. She said: “Emuruo stopped us on our way from coaching class. He
said our mummy asked him to buy juice for us.
That was how we went with him. “To our surprise, we found ourselves
at a woman’s house. But when the woman saw us, she told one of the three
girls already kidnapped to plait my hair and that of my sister.
“After that, the woman and the barber took us to the pastor’s church.
We were sitting on the ground when policemen came and rescued us. The
police also arrested the pastor and the barber.”
The girls’ mother, Mrs. Monsurat Badmos, thanked the police for rescuing her daughters.
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