The Nigeria Police, Abia Command, has confirmed the recovery of Master David Okoye, who was abducted from his mother’s shop on Aug. 21, 2020, by an unknown young man.
The command’s PRO, SP Geoffrey Ogbonna, said in Aba, on Sunday, that the child, who was abducted by a member of an illegal adoption syndicate, was recovered on Dec. 29, 2020.
Ogbonna told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that the Abia Police Commissioner, Mrs Janet Agbede had earlier issued directives to the Rapid Response Squad (RRS) to fish out the culprits and recover the baby.
He said upon receiving the order, the RRS Commander, John-Bull Obioguru, and his men, went to work and after some months of vigorous searching, located the child at Arochukwu local government area of the state.
“The RRS operation swung into action and recovered the child at Arochukwu in Abia state on the 29 of December, 2020 after he had been given out for illegal adoption at N800,000.
“On 1 January, 2020, the parents of David, Mr Ikechukwu and Rejoice Okoye came to RRS, in Aba North Local Government Area, and the baby was handed to them hale and hearty”, he said.
Okoye told NAN that he was in his workplace on Aug. 21, 2020 when his wife ran to him announcing that his child had been stolen.
He said she told him that a young man came to buy something from her shop and as she was trying to get change for him, the man lured the child with biscuits and abducted him.
“I asked her who is this person and she only gave a description, saying that she does not know the person who took the child. We were still searching for him until two weeks later when we got information that another child in that our Abayi Ariaria area had been stolen too.
“We then ran to the person whose child was stolen and asked how the person, who stole their child looked like, and they described him and it was exactly the person my wife said came to buy something and took our child.
“The woman then told us that she had made an entry at RRS in Aba North, and we went to the office and made our own entry, after which they promised to help find the baby”, he said.
He said that the police, who found out that the young man had shared the same compound with the woman whose child was stolen, began tracing him through his relatives and later found him.
Okoye thanked the Police for doing a wonderful job and urged parents to be careful of leaving their children with strangers, or relatives they could not trust.
Similarly, Ogbonna warned parents who wished to adopt children to avoid the temptation of taking the shorter route of patronising non-government and uncertified sources of adoption, or risk being caught and prosecuted.
Ogbonna also disclosed that the police was still looking for the parents of a young child, recovered in December, but who could not even state his name, to come forward and claim their child from the command. (NAN)
