Kidnapping: Man arrested for stealing 2-year-old boy

The kidnapper claimed that being jobless encouraged him to delve into the business with his gang

A 20-year-old man, Samuel Olabanji has been arrested by the police for stealing a boy from a little girl while she was returning from Arabic school on Tunkarimu Street, Ajegunle, Lagos.

Olabanji is said to have way-laid the girl as the little boy, Rokeeb Akinwale was crying. The kidnapper pretended to help the girl calm the boy by pulling him off her back, and then running off with him.

Mrs. Sadiat Akinwale, the boy's mother reported the abduction at the Ajegunle Police Division the same day after making several attempts to recover him.

The suspect and his gang were said to have returned to the neighbourhood for another operation before he was nabbed by an angry mob who beat him up before handing him over to the police.

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The suspect, who hails from Kwara State, told the police that he and his accomplices snatched a child from a girl and had stolen one other baby in the Ajegunle area earlier in February.

He said, “I am a secondary school leaver. Presently, I don’t have any job. I am into kidnapping with Sunday, Bidemi and Tunde. We came to Ajegunle sometime in February and kidnapped two kids. We took them to one Rasheed, who lives in Ipaja Ayobo and he paid us for the children.

“On February 29, we came back to Ajegunle to steal another baby, but I was caught while others escaped.”

Rokeeb's mother explained that she never lost hope of recovering her son, strongly believing that he would be found.