The Ondo State Police Command has arrested a couple, Lukman Isiaka, 42, and Abosede Olanipekun, 23, for allegedly abducting children in Ondo and Osun states.
Police recovered 10 stolen children, but distraught parents at the command’s headquarters lamented that their missing children were yet to be found.
Investigations revealed that the couple sold each child for ₦1 million to a 62-year-old woman, Sabina Izuorah, in Ihiala, Anambra State.
Police suspect the suspects were previously involved in similar crimes in Edo State before extending their operations.
Some of the rescued children, stolen as far back as 2022, struggled to recognise their parents as their names had been changed, and they now spoke the Igbo dialect.
Four infants, aged between one and six weeks, were also found with Izuorah, but their parents remain unidentified.
The couple’s arrest followed a complaint from a mother whose child was abducted.
Isiaka, using the alias Samuel Adejobi, had promised to marry the woman and introduced his wife as his sister, Ewatomi.
Under the guise of buying the woman a phone, Isiaka left her child with his “sister” and disappeared.
The police tracked the suspects to their residence in Edo State, leading to their arrest.
Investigations are ongoing as efforts continue to identify more victims and reunite the rescued children with their families.