Police Arrest Landlady Over Female Tenants’ Kidnap Of Four Children In Delta

OPERATIVES of the Delta State Police Command have arrested a landlady in Ogwashi Uku, Aniocha South Local Council over of kidnap of four children, including two siblings, by her three new female tenants, suspected to be child traffickers.
The Command’s spokesman, Bright Edafe (SP), while confirming the arrest and detention of the landlady, said: “It is true. The children were abducted three days after the women rented the apartment.
“The problem is that there is no link. They just came and said they wanted to rent an apartment and the landlady gave it to them with no details, no name, no phone number, no agreement, and after three days, they carried four children.
“The landlady has been arrested, because her actions are suspicious, and investigation is on.”
The landlady was suspected to have connived with abductors by residents of Umuokwe quarters, having rented out an apartment to them a few days before the incident.
The children, Ebube Nwafido, aged six years; her sister, Miracle, aged three; Chimanda, seven years old; and Excel, five years old, were allegedly lured on Friday, April 18, by their abductor on the pretext of going to buy biscuits for them at a popular supermarket in the community.
It was gathered that the ladies had approached the siblings’ mother, Mrs. Bose Nwafido, to direct them to where they could secure an accommodation.
According to Nwafido: “Last Monday, the three women came asking me for a house to rent. I pointed to a direction, but moment later, one of them came back and said she drank Pepsi and zobo and that she was having a running stomach, that I should allow her make use of our toilet.
“I took the lady to back of our house where she defecated in a bush and thereafter she told me she was going to withdraw money from PoS to pay for the accommodation.
“The lady later came back when I left for market and carried my first son, 10-year-old, Ifechukwude, to know their house, and that is how they started showing kindness to children around, unknown to many they had evil plan.”
She recounted that she left the children on Friday morning for a programme, with an instruction to play within the compound, but “about 12 noon, some children came back to say aunty want to buy biscuits for us.”
However, residents of the area became apprehensive when the children afailed to return home, and upon visiting the ladies’ apartment, it was discovered that room had earlier been evacuated and the suspects were nowhere to be found.
Father of siblings, Kingsley Nwafido, was shocked at the sudden disappearance of his children.
Efforts have been intensified to track down the suspects and rescue the children.