A couple from Edo State, Lukman Isiaka, 42, and Abosede Olanipekun, 23, have been arrested by Ondo State Police Command agents in relation to a string of kidnappings of children in Ondo and Osun states.
After a police inquiry revealed the couple’s troubling actions, they were detained on charges of kidnapping children and selling them for ₦1 million each. While other parents are still looking for their missing children, police have successfully retrieved ten of the stolen children.
The pair allegedly employed a variety of strategies, such as phony identities and misleading promises, to kidnap the children. It was discovered that the children, whose identities were purportedly altered, had been moved to Ihiala in Anambra State and sold to Sabina Izuorah, 62.
Before extending their activities to Ondo and Osun, investigations indicate that Isiaka and Olanipekun may have participated in comparable kidnappings in Edo State.The fact that several of the victims could no longer identify their parents and that some of them could speak the Igba dialect suggested that they had spent a lot of time away from home.
Four infants, ages one to six weeks, whose parents are still unidentified, were among the children who were rescued. The couple’s most recent kidnapping, according to police, took place in 2022 when they snatched a youngster away from her mother. Isiaka introduced his wife as his sister, Ewatomi, while assuming the identity of Samuel Adejobi.
Isiaka left the child with his purported sister after promising to buy her a phone, only for the mother to learn later that he and the child had vanished. The couple’s arrest came after police tracked them to their home in Edo, following a report of the missing child.
Authorities are continuing their investigation to identify the full extent of their crime.
