BY MIKE OSAROGIAGBON
Operatives of Edo Police Command have successfully rescued a seven-month old baby girl who was abducted and sold by her caregiver five months ago in Benin City.
The rescue and reunification of baby Grace Osamagbe with her family last week marks the end of harrowing ordeal her sudden disappearance caused her family.
The child’s grandfather, Mr. Jocob Egharevba had reported in April that his granddaughter, Grace, was abducted by her caregiver, and that all efforts to find her proved futile.
Following the complaint, operatives of the Anti-kidnapping and Cyber Crime Unit of the Command swiftly launched an investigation resulting in the arrest of one Rejoice Samuel Chukwu, 24, and her boyfriend one Destiny Uchechukwu, 28, at Peptic junction in Uyo, Akwa-Ibom state.
The Commissioner of Police, Edo State CP Umoru Ozigi stated this while detailing achievements of the Command within the last two weeks in Benin City, weekend.
CP Umoru said on interrogation, Rejoice and her boyfriend admitted to having abducted the little child absconded with her despite demanding and collected a ransom of N160,000.
The lovebirds further confessed to have sold the baby for N500,000 to one Doris Chiwendu in Owerri, Imo State.
“On November 9, 2024 at about 12:40 PM, the said Doris Chiwendu and one Jane Amaigbo were arrested at Ubomiri area of Imo State, and the victim Osamagbe Grace now one year and two months old was rescued and reunited with her parents. Suspects would soon be charged to court”. CP Umoru said.
The incident replicated that a disturbing abduction of two little children, Christable, 2 and Amanda, 4 who were reportedly stolen from their home at Utese Village, Ovia North-East local government area of Edo State on Monday, June 4, 2018.
Their parents Mr and Mrs. Edosa Osaruonamen had gone out on separate missions leaving the children in the custody of their new tenants, Rose and Mercy, who conspired to sell the children to trafficking syndicates in Ondo State.
It took eleven months of painstaking high-tech driven investigation by a team of investigators at the Anti-kidnapping and Cyber Crime Unit lead then by SP Balogun Richard to trail and rescue one of the children, Christable, while her sister Amanda, remains missing.
Baby Christable who investigation revealed was sold to multiple traffickers across seven states, including Lagos, before finally being rescued from the custody of one Anioke Augustina in Enugu State, who claimed to have adopted her after paying #850,000 to an orphanage operator, one Madam Comfort Dike John, in Imo State.
The then Commissioner of police, Edo State CP DanMallam Mohammed who reunited baby Christable with her family, paraded 11 women linked to the trafficking network.
The suspects were paraded before journalists at the State police Command headquarters on May 23, 2019.
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