Two children kidnapped in Gombe State and brought down to Anambra State have reunited with their parents on Wednesday.
The children, who were kidnaped, while playing along with other children in their parent’s compound reunited with their parents during the parade of three suspects in the kidnapping saga.
The three kidnapped suspects are Patience Opia from Cross River, Ejece Obi from Anambra state and Blessings John from Bauchi state.
Parading the suspects, the Anambra State Commissioner for Police John Bassey Abang through the State Police Public Relations Officer PPRO, SP Haurana Mohemmed said the children were kidnapped in Gombe state and were rescued in the Anambra state through intelligent network of security operatives in the state.
According to the CP, the children who were rescued and put in the welfare department of the police on sighting their parents rushed and held them.
He said, before the children were released it was confirmed that the parents were truly their biological parents.
He said the principal suspect, Blessings John claimed that she was the biological mother of one the children while the other one belonged to her late sister.
Abang also said that the suspects have concluded plans to sell each of the children at the cost of N750.000 before luck ran against them.
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Speaking to Tribune Online, one of the parents of the children, Abdulaziz Suleman said that their children were playing in their compound when they were kidnapped by an unknown person.
He said they were grateful to God for enabling them to see their children again after 20 days in the hands of the kidnappers.
According to him, they discovered the rescue of the boys through social media.
“One of our neighbors saw the pictures of the boys in the social media that they were rescued in Anambra state. He alerted us. When we confirmed that they were our children, we decided to come down to Anambra state to reclaim our children. When the children saw us they jumped and ran to us.” he stated.
Also speaking to our correspondent, Miss Blessing John who initially gave her name as Hawawu Umar said that she was on a bus with a lady whom she claimed told her that she needed help to train her two children.
According to her, when she got to Onitsha she approached Patience Opia to help her find somebody who would assist in training the children.
Blessing who claimed not to understand English admitted that she did not know the other two suspects before coming to Anambra state.
Another suspect, Miss Opia who hawks pure water in Onitsha’s main market said that Blessing came to her and told her that one of the children was her child, while the other was her late sister’s child and that they needed somebody to help to train.
According to her, Blessing told her, that she did not know any person who can take care of the children, but promised to find one who can assist in the training of the children.
She also said that after some period, she found Ejece Obi and narrated the story to her and she promised to be of assistance.
She also claimed that she first knew John when she robbed off her money on her way to buy goods in Onitsha.
” I don’t know the lady apart from when she came to Onitsha and claimed that she was robbed by armed robbers and also I didn’t know if there were price tags on the heads of the boys. I am just hearing about N750.000 price for each of the boys. I am hearing that for the first time here in the police station now, I am not aware of any price or intention to sell the boys.” she said.
Mrs Ejece Obi on her part said that, when Opia informed her about the plight of the woman training the children, she told her that she would look for somebody to assist and then she found a woman that owns a motherless baby home who promised to take care of the children. After which she notified her.
According to her, the woman agreed to take possession of the children at cost N750.000 each and the woman later called her without knowing that she was with the police” she said.
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