Abia Police Command recovers another stolen child

ALMOST four weeks after he was stolen from his parents’ residence by a suspect, Rowland Egbe, four years, seven months old Marvelous (surname withheld) has been rescued by the operatives of Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS) in Abia State Police Command.

Disclosing this to Crime Reports, the state Commissioner of Police, Adeleye Oyebade said that the abducted child was recovered from one Comfort Ogbonnaya (40), of 69B, Osusu Aba on December 13 at about 6.30p.m by Obehie SARS operatives, led by the Officer-in-Charge, Yinka Martins.

It will be recalled that Crime Reports reported the arrest of Egbe and one Chioma Ohanjinmadu in December 11, 2016 edition of Sunday Tribune. Egbe was arrested with another four-year-old boy, Uzuoba, whom he allegedly stole and was taking to Ohanjinmadu before he was intercepted by the SARS operatives.

After his arrest, Egbe had confessed to the police that he had earlier stolen another boy, Marvelous, from Oyigbo in Rivers State, whom he sold to Ohanjinmadu, but had to look for another child because his buyer said she needed a fair-skinned boy.

He claimed that he was given N50,000 from the sale of Marvelous, though Ohanjinmadu claimed that she paid N150,000 to Egbe’s partner-in-crime, Uche.

Ohanjinmadu also disclosed to the police that she sold Marvelous to Ogbonnaya because he was dark-skinned, while she said she bought the boy because she did not have a male child.

In an interview with Crime Reports, Ogbonnaya said she bought Marvelous from a motherless babies home, unknown to her that it was not a genuine home.

She said she decided to buy a child because she did not have any biological child, adding that she was a widow. She also disclosed that she paid N150,000 for the boy’s purchase.

Also, the state Commissioner of Police on Thursday paraded some armed robbery suspects, saying that their arrests were made possible by technical apparatus invested in by his command and intelligence-led policing.

The suspects included Chidiebere Nnanna (18), Udo Okpo (28) and Obinna Nkili, among others.

Also recovered were a Toyota Corolla with registration No AAA 851 BM, a Mercedes Benz 230 with registration No AG 627 APR and a Toyota RAV 4 with registration No BDG 189 KE.