A middle-aged woman alleged to have abducted a three-year-old boy, Mohammed Naziru, who was returning from the mosque after prayer alongside his eight-year-old sister, last week Friday, in the Iwaya area of Lagos, has been nabbed by police decoy operatives.

The woman, whose identity could not be immediately ascertained, was said to have covered herself with a hijab, apparently to appear as one of the women who had gone to observe the Jumat prayer in the community mosque.

She was said to have given the older sibling N500 to buy ice cream worth N150 for her, while she held on to Naziru.

However, when the girl returned, the woman had abducted her brother, Naziru.

A search around the community yielded no results until Monday, January 13, 2024, when the woman resurfaced in the community. She was identified by Naziru’s eight-year-old sister as the alleged kidnapper. The suspect, as gathered, attempted to run away but was caught by a mob who descended on her.

But for the swift arrival of policemen from the Sabo division, she would have been lynched.

The distraught father of the three-year-old boy, Alhaji Idris Adamu, lamented that his son’s whereabouts were still unknown, as the woman had refused to disclose where she had kept him.

She allegedly pretended to be mentally deranged upon arriving at the State Criminal Investigation Department (SCID), where she was transferred.

The abducted ch’ld’s father said, “I got a call at about 1 pm last Friday, informing me that my son had been kidnapped. I rushed to the house and found a mob descending on her. I begged them not to kill her because her death wouldn’t bring my son back. I reported the matter at Sabo Police division, and they brought a vehicle to convey her to the station. But because of the crowd that besieged the police station, the police took the woman to SCID.

“I prayed fervently every day for the safety of my son and for the woman to be arrested. Indeed, God heard my prayer. The woman walked into the community, covering herself with the hijab, and was identified. Immediately she sighted my wife, she started running, and when she was caught, she said she wasn’t the one who kidnapped our son without being asked.

“The woman is not mad; she is only pretending. When she was apprehended, we found some pieces of paper in her possession where she wrote an address where they should keep the boy and the injection they should give to him to put him to sleep. She also wrote down many telephone numbers on some sheets of paper found in the multi-coloured purse that was found with her.

“All I want is my son. She should tell us where she kept him so that we can go get him before any harm befalls him.”

Besides, the 40-year-old man also wondered why the woman, who had braids on at the time of her arrest, suddenly loosened them to change her looks to that of someone who had not combed her hair for months.

He therefore appealed to detectives at the SCID to do all they could, as fast as possible, to extract the truth that would lead to the rescue of his son from where the suspect had kept him.

Meanwhile, detectives at the SCID said they would take the woman to a psychiatrist’s hospital to ascertain her mental state, as part of the investigation into the matter.

It was also gathered that a man who initially claimed to be her father when the mob descended on her was picked up by the police but later released. (The Guardian)