NEWS Woman abducts and keeps 7-year-old hostage for 19 months

The Ogun State police command has arrested a 20-year-old woman, Ajoke Owolabi, for allegedly kidnapping and holding a minor hostage for 19 months.

Owolabi allegedly abducted seven-year-old Racheal Olorunshola while she was returning from school in March last year.

According to the command’s spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi, an Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP), the parents searched for the girl, whom a good Samaritan brought back to them last month.

He said:

“But luck ran out of the suspect on August 29, as the victim was playing in front of her parent’s home at Igbore and the suspect was passing by.

“The victim raised alarm, pointing at the woman as the person that abducted her. The suspect was promptly arrested. But she denied ever knowing the girl. The girl quickly mentioned her name as aunty Ajoke and when she was searched, her name was seen conspicuously written on her body.“It was then she confessed to the commission of the offence. She revealed that the little girl was taken to Oshodi in Lagos where she was kept for 19 months.

“She stated that she came to attend a party in Abeokuta and kept the girl in a room, where she escaped. She passed through the girl’s parent’s house unknown to her that the girl was there and that was how she was arrested.”

He said the state Commissioner of Police, Ahmed Iliyasu, has ordered the immediate transfer of the suspect to Anti Kidnapping/Cultism Unit of the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department (SCIID) for further investigation.